


Volatile

by Timelady_93



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Attempted Murder, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Male Slash, Minor Character Death, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Romance, Sexual Content, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 04:50:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 58,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1969671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timelady_93/pseuds/Timelady_93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ciel is a troubled young man. Blinded in one eye since the car crash that also took his parents,<br/>he is struggling against bullies, hunger, his drunken aunt and her abuse. Until he accidentally runs into<br/>a newcomer in town, Sebastian, who wants to help him. Perhaps too much...</p><p>AU, OOC, Mature themes in future chapters. Male/Male relationship.</p><p>(This fic exists on ff.net as well, under my other pen-name, KuroPenny.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge/Love

Chapter One

 

“Love”

 

(Prologue)

 

 

The lights by the highway flickered past his sleepy eyes. It was almost midnight. Just a little longer now and…

 

“Ciel? Ciel, wake up!” His mother’s voice called out to him and pulled him from his sleep.

“uhhn? What…” he yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Happy tenth birthday, love!”

 

Ciel’s smile widened and he laughed when his mother leaned towards him from the passenger seat to reach him and give him a small kiss on the forehead as he bounced in the back seat of joy. His father chuckled and his eyes left the road for a moment to watch the happy moment he was experiencing on their way home. He did not know it was going to be his last.

 

…

 

The annoying beeping of machines woke Ciel up. He felt strange and struggled to sit up. It was dark around him and he was all alone. Where on earth was he? Certainly not his room in the mansion his parents inherited when he was little. With a yelp he found that something was attached to his right hand. He pulled the thing and realized it was a tube. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Was he in hospital? Where were his parents?! And why was it still so dark? His eyes should have become accustomed to the lack of light by now.

 

His trembling left hand slowly reaches his head to brush his hair out of his eyes and he screams as he touches a thick bandage. The blackness grows even thicker as he faints.

 

The next thing he knows is someone touching him, stroking his hair and cooing him.

“M-mother? Is that…you?” The same moment he says those words he knows. That is most certainly not his mother. If it were, she would be hugging him, the moment his mouth opened.

 

“No…I’m so very sorry dear, but…your parents…” the nurse’s voice failed her.

“Where are they?!” Ciel’s heart was breaking. Why wouldn’t she just take him to his mom and dad? Where were they anyway? What if they were injured too?

 

“Please, bring my parents here…” he sniffed and tore at the bandage.

 

“No, please don’t touch that. No, Ciel, you’re hurt!” The kind nurse gently snatched his hands and continued; “Listen sweetie, you were injured in the accident-

 

“What accident?” Ciel’s blood froze and everything just felt surreal. If they had been in an accident…that must be why his parents hadn’t come to see him yet! They were also at the hospital! Ciel couldn’t believe her, although his whole body hurt and told him otherwise.

 

“Shush, listen, please…I know it’s scary that you can’t see right now, but-”

“I just want to see them, please…” his hands trembled beneath the touch of the nurse.

“Oh, I am so sorry, but you can’t…Ciel…they died.” The nurse looked at the small slate haired boy, sitting all patched up in a hospital bed and receiving the news of his parent’s deaths. She started crying, holding his hand and slowly stroked his visible cheek.

“…No, no, you’re lying…they can’t be…dead?” Ciel cursed himself for even thinking that she might be telling him the truth and was just about to snatch his hands away, when he heard it. The soft sound of a crying woman, who desperately didn’t want to cry. The same person that right now patted his cheek.

 

“I have gotten hold of you aunt; she’ll be here any minute. I promise I’ll stay until then.”

“Aunt Ann…?” Ciel’s body couldn’t feel anything. His beloved mother with her bright blue eyes and blonde hair was gone. Forever. So was his father. The one person he had believed could never die, but had done just that, leaving him all alone.

 

Ciel screamed.

 


	2. "5 years, 7 months and 3 days later"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Years after he lost his parents, Ciel runs into an interesting guy in a park.

Chapter Two

 

The nightmare of his past roused him from his sleep. What the hell had triggered it now, he thought as he wiped his sweaty forehead with his hand. Looking at his left side, he saw the greenish light from the clock, which happily told him that he had woken up at exactly 3 am the 17th of July. And apparently it was a Thursday, too. Ciel couldn't care less.

"Uuuurgh" was the only sound that left his lips, staring at the clock. He dived beneath the covers once more. There was no way he was going to get any more sleep now. Yet he did not want to leave his bed. It was too hot, too. Damn this whole damn thing called summer! Ciel hated the bright sunlight that irritated his eye and woke him up in the morning. Add to that, the smothering heat that kept giving him nightmares.

"Oh, what the hell, the day's ruined anyway!" He tossed the thin blanket away and- he froze. Half out of his bed and half down on the cold floor, he froze, listening intently to the noise he though he'd heard.

A door suddenly slammed shut and Ciel relaxed a little. A loud slam was better than the quiet 'click' he heard sometimes. Shooting a glance towards the clock, it told him his aunt arrived home at exactly 3.17 am. A bit early, even for her, Ciel thought and stood up. His stomach growled, but he didn't mind it. Eating was a luxury in this house.

He sighed and stretched his arms above his head. A 'pop' was heard from his spine and he winced. Ugh, he hated that noise. His hands found the black silk patch on his night stand and he tied it neatly over his right eye. With a groan he quickly dressed himself in his favourite clothes, as quiet as possible, afraid to attract his aunt's attention. That never turned out well.

As he slips a black sweater over his white shirt he winced. A quick look in the mirror told him that last time's bruise that covered a third of his back only had turned a sickly yellow-ish green, still tender to the touch. He smothered a cough with his sleeve as he jumped around on one leg, trying to get his pants on. Well there goes 'as quiet as possible' he thought and his eyes widened at the sound of booming footsteps coming up the stairs. Fuck, fuck, fuck…!

He started panicking, threw the only window in his room open and threw his socks, shoes and bag out-

"CIEEEEL!" His aunt's voice screeched through his door and he stopped himself halfway out through his window.

…damn it. "Yes, aunt Ann?" he cursed himself for answering and bit his lip hard.

"Get the fuck downstairs before I drag you there you fucking-"

Ciel didn't wait to hear the rest of the insult. He had already stepped out on the roof and closed the window behind him. He shivered slightly. His bare feet treaded carefully on the roof tiles as he inched closer to the edge. He knelt to pick up his socks that hadn't made their way down to the yard. With the (fairly unused) socks in his mouth, he slipped himself over the edge and slowly dropped to the ground with a soft 'thump'.

He quickly fetched his bag and his shoes not far from where he'd landed. He could still hear his aunt screaming nonsense, so he sat down in the damp grass to pull on his socks and shoes. With a noise that wasn't a sigh and neither a yawn, he stood up and straightened out his clothes. Again, he was going to head to the park.

He looked around, as if afraid someone might see him, he patted his hair down over the right side of his face. He walked quickly, as one does when sure of where you are headed. He didn't need to look up; he kept his good eye glued to the ground since he knew the way far too well by now.

With his hands in his pockets he found himself at the park. Which way he'd taken, he didn't know. He just always ended up there somehow. His legs automatically moved towards the park as soon as he had some free time. He walked slowly, bag on his back and his head bowed, as if he'd been trained like a circus horse to bend his neck. His aunt didn't like when he looked at her. He reminded her too much of her sister, apparently. Checking his watch, it was now 4.45 am. He'd been walking for quite some time.

When he finally slumped down on a deserted bench he pulled his knees up to himself. After staring at nothing for a good while, he decided to check what he'd been able to bring with him in the bag. His feet dropped to the ground and he pulled the bag into his lap. After a minute he felt relieved, because he had found some loose money in the bottom of the bag, so he wouldn't have to starve if he kept clear of his home all day. He also pulled out his favourite pencil and a worn old sketchbook. He always kept that book with him. He gently moved his slender fingers across the cover. Oh, how many hours hadn't he spent drawing in that book?

A small drop of water landed harshly on his treasured sketchbook. He looked up, just in time to watch the rain clouds gather and decide to drench the whole town. Panicking at the fear of his book being ruined in the water, he more or less shoved it into the plastic bag he always kept it in and proceeded to gather his other things he'd strewn across the bench. His old phone went the same way as his book. A bar of candy, a black leather cuff, a pair of sunglasses and his wallet were gathered in a big pile which he stuffed into his bag and ran for cover.

Why start raining now? Couldn't that wait until fall?! Ciel kept running, his head turned low, as usual, when his path was suddenly blocked and he smashed face-first into whoever's chest it was he ran in to. He fell backwards and landed on his bruised back.

...

If anyone else had run into the black-haired and pale Sebastian Michaelis on his early morning jog, he would have lifted them from the ground and kindly told them to, pardon the language, fuck off. This time however, the face of the person that hadn't had the courtesy to look where he was going, was contorted in pain.

Tch. It can't have hurt that much, Sebastian thought and moved to pull the teenager to his feet. He was surprised when he flinched away, as if he was afraid to be touched. He was further intrigued when he noticed the eye patch, a short second before the boy hid his face from him.

"Hey…I'm sorry kid, are you okay?" Sebastian offered a kind smile at the teen, which suddenly looked up and blinked at him confusedly.

"Um…yeah. I'm fine." Ciel struggled to get to his feet since he didn't want to move his back too much, but his shoes only slipped in the mud that now made out the ground.

"Do you want me to help you? You look like you could need a hand, you know…" Sebastian didn't know why he was still standing there, watching the younger trying to stand only to fall right back into the dirt. Maybe be cause it was amusing? Because it most certainly was. He smirked.

"No! I can stand on my own; I'm not a fucking chil- Aaah!" He gnashed his teeth at the pain in his back and forced himself upright. His legs shook a little and now he was both drenched and covered in mud. 'So much for keeping away from home' he thought bitterly.

"Are you sure you're alright? You look like you're in pain." The raven haired male whose morning routine had been interrupted didn't feel like running any more. He was soaked. And so was that kid in front of him.

But he was dirty too. Such an unusual hair colour he had too, it looked almost blue. Sadly he couldn't see his face too good. But he bet he was cute.

"What's your name? I'm Sebastian." He reached out his hand towards him.

"I said, I don't want any help!" Ciel merely swatted the inviting hand away, picked up his bag and started walking past that creep of a guy. His hair stuck to his face and he tried to swipe it out of his lonely blue eye, with not much luck.

Sebastian sighed. The first person to ever talk to him since he moved to this town, besides that obnoxious red-head at work, just had to be aggressive and short-tempered…but perhaps there was a reason behind all that? Sebastian couldn't help it, he was curious about the teen.

"Hey! Didn't you forget something?" Sebastian didn't move to look at the teen he was addressing; he just stood still, becoming more soaked by the minute.

"What?" Ciel turned, and looked at the tall stranger. "Did I drop something?"

"No. How about an apology? Something like, 'I'm sorry for bumping into you'?" Sebastian cocked his head and smiled at him, his wet hair making him look like a drenched cat.

"Why should I?!" Ciel growled and turned around, starting to jog away. He didn't come very far though, before a hand caught his shoulder from behind.

Ciel froze for the second time that day. Only now, it was slightly different. He could actually feel his well-kempt walls collapse inside him and leave him bare, exposed and vulnerable. He was scared out of his wits. When ever someone touched him, it always meant pain, humiliation and laughter. That man was going to hit him. Just like every one else always did. Why, why did it have to be this way?

The simple contact on his shoulder was too much. Ciel himself collapsed out of fear and fatigue.


	3. Chapter Three: "Sebastian"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do NOT own Kuroshitsuji in any way.
> 
> Warnings: Language.
> 
> Ciel wakes up in a white room, and Sebastian promises not to drug him...

A warm hand on his forehead made him groan and try to move away. A dull headache made him certain of the fact that he must be alive, as well as the pain in his back. His stomach made itself known to him when it rumbled furiously, protesting the forced diet. A lost consciousness slowly made its way back where it belonged and Ciel opened his lonely eye. Only to be even more confused.

Where the hell am I? He thought as he stared into a white ceiling.

"Welcome back." A stoic looking doctor said harshly. Ciel flinched. He was at the hospital? No, no, no, this isn't happening..! The very source of his nightmares had him in his claws. He fixed his eye on the ceiling and let out a shuddering slip of air.

Okay…just breathe Ciel. You're okay, no one's dead. Breathe. You can do thi-

"Young Phantomhive, what are you doing here, again?" Doctor 'no-facial-expression' questioned him. "This is the fourth time the past three months. And this time you were blacked out for more than three whole hours. Also, we dried you off, since your back was covered in mud. Your sweater has been washed and dried. It's on the bed, by your feet."

Ciel snapped out of his unpleasant thoughts "Uh, what-" Ciel sat up groggily in the hospital bed, his head leaving the pillow, hair already dry.

"Were you aware that you are on the brink of starvation?" Said doctor pushed up his glasses further and looked at him sternly.

Ciel's mind began functioning properly again and recognized the boring doctor. It was Doctor Spears. He was the doctor that had tried his best to save his eye. He was a good doctor, only a bit…well, he had trouble understanding other's emotions and fears. The brink of starvation? Doesn't he think I know that! I do my bloody best to survive for God's sake! Ciel sighed and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Doctor Spears, I'll just be going now. Nice to see ya' and thanks for washing my sweater or whatever-" Ciel put some weight on his feet, firmly planted on the floor to make sure they could hold him when he climbed out of the bed.

He snatched his black sweater and pulled it over his head, but when he had it half-way on, he suddenly stopped his ministrations as he noticed a man sitting in one of the guest chairs far off by the wall.

He was obviously tall; his head was a mess of black locks who looked even more unruly as they had been allowed to air dry after the rain, and he was dressed in a black set of jogging pants and a t-shirt. Wait…isn't that…the creep in the park? What the hell is he doing here?! Ciel's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the Doctor's voice once more.

"You, young man, are not going anywhere, until I am certain you can take care of yourself. Do you have the phone number to your aunt? I'll call her for you to make sure she comes right away to pick you up. I will not let you leave the hospital alone, not this time."

Ciel's head snapped towards the doctor, "No! I-I mean…I don't have it. Um…we don't have a phone." Ciel finished pulling on his clothes (he gave up) and held his face in his hands, rubbing at his aching temples. He felt a massive head ache creeping up on him and it would attack soon, if he didn't get out of here now. Hospitals made him remember.

"You are lying. I know you have a cell phone. If you don't have any money on it, you can use the phone right there." The Doctor's right finger pointed towards the corridor.

Ciel suddenly looked up at the doctor again, "Have you seen my bag? Do you know where it is?"

The doctor simply pointed to his bag, lying on the nightstand beside his bed. "It's right there. You know, you really don't look too well, Ciel."

"Oh...I see." Ciel pulled his bag towards him, and slipped it on his back. "Really, doctor Spears, I'm fine, I promise. I was just a little faint, that's all… Can I leave this place if I go with him? He's an adult and I really don't want my aunt to find out I went to the hospital, just because I fainted…please?" Ciel pointed towards the 'creep' in the corner with a (very ill-faked) pleading look at the doctor.

"That is the civilian who brought you here. He said he wanted to stay and wait for you to wake up. Do you even know him? He told us nothing about you and doesn't seem to know you at all. I strongly advise you to call your au- "

"I do know him! His name is Sebastian, and he…likes jogging. Isn't that enough?" Ciel was already standing, only wobbling a little, looking intently at the physician.

"Come on Mr. Spears! You know me; I wouldn't waste time with a stranger, would I?"

Doctor William T. Spears hated children, most of all teenagers. Especially the one in front of him right now. After all he had done for him; he wouldn't even listen two minutes to his advice. Such a little brat. The doctor slumped his shoulders and let out an annoying sigh.

Why did he even care? That boy was old enough to take care of himself, he'd probably just been too caught up in one of those stupid videogames young people seemed to be glued to these days…He wasn't the poor kid who lost both his parents and an eye in one evening anymore. Doctor Spears had finally had enough for one morning. He really needed his morning coffee. Right now.

"You know what Ciel, stop wasting my time and get out of here, if you are feeling fine. If you really know that man, you are free to leave. You're old enough to make your own decisions. Just…do me a favour. Start eating properly again." The doctor fixated his glasses, glanced at the dark-haired man, frowned and turned to walk away.

Still sitting on the edge of the bed, Ciel stood up and sighed with relief. That was, until that stranger approached him.

"You okay?" Sebastian looked at the seemingly fragile teen in front of him and brushed his long fingers through his black hair as he spoke.

"I'm fine. Leave me alone." Ciel mumbled sourly and walked towards the door, but he stopped when he felt that man's hand on his shoulder. Again. He shuddered in sudden disgust.

"You are most certainly not fine. What's up with your aunt? Why wouldn't you call her?"

"That's none of your business. Get your hands off of me." Ciel didn't dare move.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong. Why are you starving yourself?" Sebastian knew he was feeding an unhealthy interest with the teen and his life. Why did he care? He didn't know. He just did.

"I'm not! What, you think I have a death-wish?! Just... leave me the hell alone!" Ciel jerked out of the grip and rushed out into the corridor, Sebastian high on his heels. Ciel didn't look behind him once as he dashed towards the reception desk.

…

Slamming his both palms against the receptionist's desk, she jolted out of whatever trance she had been in when he tried to get her attention by talking to her. She seemed to have had her eyes fixed on something behind Ciel. Something that was quite tall, with dark hair and amber eyes, complete with a mischievous smirk. Ciel just sighed.

"I'm leaving the hospital now. My name is Ciel Vincent Phantomhive." He tapped his fingers on her desk, waiting impatiently for her to finish typing. He gave an annoyed glance behind him, towards the man who still refused to stay out of his business, and stared angrily at him.

A light tapping was the only sound in the empty space as the receptionist moved her fingers quickly over the computer's keys.

"I'm sorry, Mister Phantomhive, but you are underage and you need a parent to pick y-"

"Excuse me, miss, I am his friend and he was allowed to leave the hospital as long as I watched over him, according to doctor Spears. Please check with him, if you'd like."

Sebastian had shoved Ciel aside, leaning over the desk and speaking in a low, sensual voice. Ciel could see her brain stop running. He chuckled at the silly woman. Maybe that guy could be useful? He mentally slapped himself. Sebastian is my ticket out of here, nothing else, don't forget that, Ciel! he thought. Then he grinned as he saw the woman trying to look sexy whilst filling in a paper for him.

"Thank you, miss." Sebastian took the document she held out for him and smiled seductively, as she purposely was leaning forward to make her breasts look bigger. Sebastian merely kept smiling and turned towards Ciel. "See? Now, what would you have done without me?" Sebastian smirked at him.

"Tch! I wouldn't have ended up here in the first place." He snatched the paper out of Sebastian's hands. "Now get me out of here!" Ciel stood with his back straight, lone eye determined and his arms rebelliously crossed over his chest.

Then his stupid stomach ruined everything. It gave out a very loud growl which echoed in the large hall and Sebastian gave out an amused chuckle at his shocked expression.

"You're just too cute, aren't you?" A light pat was delivered to Ciel's pale cheek and with no obvious reason; he blushed furiously at the sudden contact.

"What do you think you're doing? Don't touch me!" Ciel desperately tried to fan the blush away, but of course it didn't work. It might have become even more obvious.

"Alright, I'm sorry Ciel." Sebastian held up his hands in defeat.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm leaving this place." Ciel started walking towards the exit, with a smiling Sebastian in tow.

Outside, the raining had stopped. A few merry birds could be found in the nearby trees, singing their chirpy melodies. Ciel just marched on, bag on one shoulder, his head low, determined to get rid of that 'creep' behind him as soon as possible and maybe get something to eat at last.

"Hey! Ciel, what's the hurry?" Sebastian caught up in no-time and just started jogging beside the intriguing dark-haired teen with the blue, oh, so blue eye. And thus, a very intelligent conversation started:

"I'm going home. Leave me alone."

"Nope."

"I said leave."

"Will not."

"Whatever, creep."

"You hungry?"

"..."

Ciel stopped. Sebastian followed suit.

"Why? Are you going to buy me food, just so you can drug me and rape me?! You fucking sick bastard! Fuck you!" Ciel started in a low whisper, but when he was done; his voice broke as he screamed right in the man's face.

"What? No, I-" Sebastian was honestly surprised at the teens reaction. What the hell has happened to him?! Sebastian took a careful step closer towards the teen who backed away.

"Just leave, please leave me alone…" Ciel didn't look at him. He kept his eye on the ground as he whispered the sentence over and over and he turned and slowly walked in the other direction.

This time Sebastian didn't follow him, he just stood there, staring after the young man, quite shocked.

Then he quickly said, "You're starving. It really is quite obvious, you know. Your cheeks are beginning to hollow out. And your wrists are so very thin." These words, spoken carefully from the heart, made Ciel stop once more. And scream, he did.

"Why do you care!? Why do you care when no one else has ever cared before?!" Ciel started shaking as he slowly turned to face Sebastian, marching back to him, just for the sake to be able to bust the creep's eardrums with his screaming.

His hands clenched into fists, tears beginning to burn behind his eyelids and he felt faint again. Probably due to all the screaming. But he wouldn't faint, no, he would not faint! "I asked, why do you CARE?!"

"Because I want you to live!" Sebastian was now equally angry, staring at the teen, keeping his gaze steadily locked on to that one, visible blue orb that contained so much heartbreak, so much pain. "Please, don't waste your life away. You're still young, there's so much more to do, to see and to feel. It pains me to see someone suffer like this."

Ciel was stunned. He didn't know what to say to this strange man. As he opened his mouth to speak, it felt like all air went out of him and the words came out in a hoarse whisper, "B-but…you don't know me. Why would you care if I lived or died?" Ciel stared at him in shock.

"I don't know you, that's right. But I want to help you. I can see your suffering in that eye of yours." Sebastian's shoulders slumped down. "I never meant to hurt you, please, just listen to me-"

Sebastian's speech was cruelly interrupted by Ciel's growling stomach. They both looked up at the same moment and Ciel blushed, trying to hug his stomach out of growling. It did not work, surprisingly enough.

Sebastian smiled gently at him. "I'm already too late for work to even dare showing my face there. Let's get you something to eat, okay?"

"N-no, I don't know you-"

"I'll let you order at McDonald's, I'll just pay for it. If you are drugged, well, at least I didn't do it then. Deal?" Sebastian tilted his head and smiled.

Ciel stared at him. The mere thought of cheeseburgers made his mouth water and before he even opened his mouth, his stomach had decided for him (rumbling louder than ever) and Ciel sighed, admitting defeat and approached Sebastian warily.

"Okay…let's go then."

****

Read and Review!


	4. Aunt Ann

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel eats his fill on burgers, they talk and get to know each other a little more before Ciel abruptly dumps Sebastian on the side-walk and runs home. Sebastian goes into stalker mode and Ann goes ballistic. 
> 
> Total word count: 3052
> 
> Now...do enjoy yourselves.

Sebastian had never been to McDonald's clad only in his jogging outfit before. He almost felt slightly embarrassed by the strange looks the few others in the restaurant gave him. Or, perhaps they were staring, open-mouthed at the teen across the table and not at him and his clothes.

Whilst Sebastian only nibbled his food and sipped his coffee, Ciel ate with what you could call 'appetite'. Sebastian couldn't help but stare at him. But then, he'd never seen someone eat like that teen, to which he had just bought the eleventh hamburger to either.

Ciel felt like he was in heaven. He didn't care if others stared, in fact, he didn't even know they were staring at him. All he saw was food. Sebastian had started out with buying six cheeseburgers for him, which he had eaten in two, perhaps three minutes.

It was the un-wrapping that took him so much time. Now, he was finally beginning to feel satisfied. Calming down, he looked up and found Sebastian smiling at him.

"What's wrong?" Ciel looked down again, focusing on his food once more.

"Nothing. I'm just amazed at your eating skills. You might have broken the world record."

"Ha. Ha. Veryfunny, Sebastian." Ciel glared at him through the bangs of his hair.

"You haven't had anything to drink yet. Aren't you thirsty?" Sebastian pushed the coke across the table to Ciel.

"Hmm, yeah. Thanks." Ciel grabbed the coke and drank almost all of it, before he stopped and set it down. He looked strange for a moment and then he burped, directly at Sebastian.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

Sebastian chuckled, "What? Burp in my face?" He laughed. "I don't care, eat your fill. And drink until you can't take another drop."

"O-okay…but still. It's rude." Ciel looked down at the table.

"Hey, I forgive you. It's no big deal. Do you want another one?"

"No thanks. I'm fine. I just…" Ciel still stared at the suddenly very interesting table. He fiddled with the paper around the last half-eaten burger in his hand.

"Go on." Sebastian leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, his mouth against his fingers and a curious look in his mischievous eyes.

"I…I don't know how to pay for all this," Ciel muttered in a low voice.

"Pay for what? I did say I was buying, right?" Sebastian lightly poked Ciel's cheek with his finger, just to get a reaction from him.

"It's not right; I can't let you spend your hard-earned money for my sake. And stop doing that."

"I can buy whatever I want, it's my money after all, and no, I will not stop until you look at me."

Ciel glanced up at him, brushing his hair out of his eye. "Fine. What do you want me to do?"

Sebastian smiled and continued, "I want you to talk to me. Ask me stuff."

Ciel grimaced. "Why?"

"Because I want to be your friend." Sebastian held his gaze steady at the teen.

"I don't have friends." Ciel's head turned and he locked eye with his enormous pile of wrappers lying scattered all over the table, trying to shuffle them into a neat stack.

"I sort of figured that already." Sebastian sighed and finished off the last of his own burger.

"So why would you want to be friends with me? We're not even the same age." Ciel scoffed.

Sebastian brushed some imaginary crumbs off his shirt. "Because I don't have any friends either."

Ciel's sarcastic smile died on his lips. "What? Why? You should have a ton of friends, you-"

"I don't like people in general. I am sure you might want to agree that other persons can be very annoying, right?" Sebastian looked at the empty cup of coffee and twirled it around.

"Yeah, but-… Come oooon! You're like thirty! I'm still just fifteen. You old perv."

"I am not thirty. I just turned twenty-two." He leaned forward and continued in a hushed voice: "And I would prefer if you didn't call me a pervert at a public restaurant, Ciel. People might get the wrong idea."

Ciel suddenly became aware of the rest of the guests around them, staring at them. His mouth fell open in a silent 'oh' before he turned back to the suggested pervert.

Sebastian took a quick glance and continued, "I suggest we leave as soon as we can."

"Yep." Ciel stood up, gulped down the rest of the coke and shoved the remaining food in his mouth, before they both headed towards the exit.

Ciel walked carefully as he started to realize how much he'd eaten.

"Oh my Gooood. I think I'm going to throw up." Ciel groaned and held on to his stomach.

"Well…No wonder, really." Sebastian smiled and opened the exit-door for him. "I'm impressed that such a tiny thing could eat that much."

"Oh, shut it! I am not tiny." Ciel glared at him as they strolled down the sidewalk. "Anyway…you know…thanks for the food."

"You are most welcome." Sebastian looked honestly happy at his words.

A few moments of awkward silence dawned upon them, until Ciel decided he needed more information on this strange man and his intentions. "So…um. Where do you work? If you don't mind me asking…" Ciel's eyes quickly attached themselves to the ground.

"No, no it's fine. I wanted you to ask things. Actually, I work in an office, in town." Sebastian sighed. "It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for my co-worker, Grell. He's a literal eye-sore. You'd get what I mean if you saw him, I mean his style is…peculiar. To say the least."

Ciel looked at Sebastian's disgruntled face with a grin when he understood exactly whom it was Sebastian was referring to. "Are you serious?! You work with Mr. Sutcliffe? That's just hilarious!" The teen broke up into an even larger grin.

"Ciel…Do you know him? Really?" Sebastian almost looked disappointed.

The teen nodded and continued, "Yeah…Well I mean, I've had him as a substitute teacher a few times, and his style isn't peculiar, it's bloody terrible! I mean, all that red might as well burn your eyes out of their sockets!"

Sebastian chuckled. "Ah yes, but that isn't the worst part, I'm afraid." Sighing, he pulled his fingers trough his raven hair, be fore he looked back at the young man beside him.

"Well, if he acts like he did when I had him as a teacher, I'm sure he's already tried to marry you. And tried to kiss you, numerous times. Not to mention he'd totally try to-"

"How in the world did you know that?" Sebastian cut him off and stopped walking. He shuddered at the unpleasant reminder.

Ciel turned and walked backwards, to keep looking at the not-so-much-of-a-stranger-any-more, slowly before he stopped and shrugged, "What? It's Grell. He does that kind of thing."

As Sebastian joined him again, Ciel said, "Do you know what he did to our principal?"

The older man just sighed, "Do I want to know? Really want to know?"

"Yeah you do! Okay, so our principal is the most homophobic guy in existence, Grell is the gayest person I've ever met. So, what happens? Grell tries to woo the principal!"

Sebastian just raised an eyebrow. "So? What's so funny about that?"

"I'm not at the funny part yet, wait and listen. So, the principal turns him down every time, but Grell, being the flamboyant red-head he is, refuses to accept it. On Valentine's Day he gave the principal a box of chocolate spiked with drugs, an-"

Sebastian's eyes widen at Ciel's words and he interrupts,"Wait, wait, what? He tried to drug him? Is that true?!"

"Yeah. Well, I guess he wanted the principal to eat the candy, but unfortunately he gave it to some kids. And they just fell asleep after two bites-"

"Are you telling me this is the same mad-man I'm working next to?!"

Ciel laughed, "Listen, just take my advice and don't eat anything he gives you, not even coffee from the machine if he so much as touches the mug. Or even looks at it. Whatever he's got might be contagious!"

Sebastian stopped walking again. He was sweating. Only yesterday, Grell had smilingly offered him a hot cup of coffee, but luckily he already had one so he had declined. What if…

Ciel waved his hands in front of the unresponsive male. "Heeey, you haven't heard the best part yet. You know what finally got him fired?"

Sebastian looked up and swallowed, "No?"

"He brought his chainsaw to the principal's office."

"HE DID WHAT? Please don't tell me he murdered him!"

The teen watches as the look of desperation crept up on the handsome features of the raven. Ciel realized what he'd been talking about.

Grell's obsession with guys. Sebastian was a guy.

'And he is much more handsome than that old murky principal…No! Bad Brain! Let's see. Sebastian is totally Grell's next target… He'd better stay away from him or I'll- Ugh…What am I even thinking? He's obviously not gay! Besides that, he's older than me, too... ' he thought and refocused on the unpleasant thought that Sebastian might in fact have been a cup of coffee away from 'Only-Grell-knows-what', before he spoke again.

"Nooo…but he threatened to. The principal promised to not call the police if he just accepted that he was fired and to leave, never to return. And, surprisingly enough, he did."

"Why on earth did he not call the police? Is he mad?"

"Yep. You bet. He's nuts." Ciel went back to his usual, quiet state. He liked talking to Sebastian, even if it was a super-weird topic. Somehow he made him feel better, more free.

"Well, I'm not even going to share desk with him any more…" Sebastian shook his head slowly and involuntarily shuddered.

"Hah, no. That might be the best." Ciel stared at his feet.

"Thanks for telling me, you know."

A smile beamed from the raven's face but Ciel didn't notice. He was beginning to feel uneasy. Like something was wrong. Almost…like he'd forgotten something.

Ciel looked up, face pale and disfigured with sheer horror. "Oh no, what time is it?"

A bit shocked at the sudden turn of atmosphere, Sebastian looked at his watch. "Ah…it's half past eleven. Why?"

"Shit! I-I need to go home! My aunt is going to kill me!" Panic ripped at his thoughts, past events where his drunken aunt had broken into his room with a knife and a lighter, burning all drawings she saw and threatening to kill him if he interfered, played before his eye.

"Home? Hey, Ciel wait…!"

"I can't!"

"But-"Sebastian stood on the empty sidewalk, his right arm reaching out for the already running teen, looking after him as he disappeared. He sighed. "I could at least have gotten your phone number…" he silently whispered. 'Oh well, there's always internet. I can find out everything about him, thanks to that unusual name. I think I'll start with his number…' he thought, as he pulled out his smartphone from one of his pockets.

Sebastian's confused call echoed in his ears as he ran, as fast as he dared with all those burgers he'd eaten. He felt terrible for just running off like that, not even properly saying 'good-bye' to his new found friend. His thoughts halted for a moment. Yea right. How was he supposed to be able to see him again? He didn't know where he lived. Nor if he even lived in this town.

Going online and searching for him was not an option, he didn't have an internet connection on the old piece of broken junk he had in his room, nor did the local library. 'Too expensive, my ASS!' Ciel pushed all thoughts of the older man away. Well, at least he honestly tried to.

Biting his bottom lip hard, he jumped over a small white fence, taking a short-cut through someone's backyard. He saw the right street not far away, silently wondering how many of his things that were still intact. If she'd kicked the door in or not. How many of his beloved books she'd torn apart. All because he'd not been there at exactly 10 AM to boil her every-day coffee. He'd forgotten it once. That's definitely nothing he'd like to relive again. Ciel's manic thoughts raced at the same pace as his feet.

Panting hard, Ciel stumbled into what was left of the grass in their garden. He quickly searched his pockets for the key to the door, when it swung open with a dry squeak and a bang when the wood of the door connected with the house.

"Hello, nephew." Ann's icy voice slithered through Ciel's mind like a dull razor through thick skin. Slow and painful. Her long and thin body leaned against the doorframe as she spoke.

"H-hi, Aunt Ann." Ciel looked cautiously up through his bangs as he took a very careful step towards the door.

"Come on in, I made you lunch, dear!" Ann suddenly smiled brightly and trotted inside.

"H-what?" With his mouth gaping open, Ciel, in shock of her behaviour, just dropped his bag in the doorway before he staggered into the house's kitchen, after aunt Ann. Indeed, she'd cooked for the both of them. Something that looked like Pancakes.

The mere scent made Ciel's stomach churn. 'What the hell has she made these of?' The empty carton of eggs thrown on top of the worn counter drew his attention, so when he took it and read the last consumable date, his stomach did another involuntary somersault. 'These eggs are almost a month too old! How was she even able to cook without throwing up?'

Ciel turned around, and watched in horror as Ann was already sitting there, eating happily, a wide grin on her makeup covered face.

"Ciel! What are you waiting for? Come! Sit down and eat!" She shot him a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes this time.

"Ah… thanks Aunt Ann…but… I've already eaten." Ciel stood in front of his plate with pancakes that resembled a greenish grey…something. He leaned his hands on the backrest of the chair as he looked at her a moment before he turned to leave.

"Ciel. Sit down. Now." Her hands dropped the cutlery on the table. The noise as they clinked against the porcelain was a warning. As Ciel turned back around he witnessed her face twist into a grimace worthy a spawn of Satan, as her eyes glared up at her nephew and his sudden stuttering.

"I-I'm sorry, Aunt Ann, b-but-" Ciel turned his head away, knowing what would happen next.

"I said, SIT DOWN YOU LITTLE FUCK!" The chair behind her toppled over as she flew up and threw herself at him, across the table, spreading plates and green slobs all over the floor.

Her hands stretched out, fingers crooked, ready to strangle, to suffocate, to murder her only living relative. Ciel fell backwards in shock, he never thought she'd attack like an animal; usually he just got slapped and hit in the face and sometimes on his back with an old belt.

"I HATE YOU! YOU'RE NOT MY NEPHEW, HE'S DEAD! HE DIED WITH MY SISTER, DO YOU HEAR THAT?! JUST DIE, YOU MISERABLE LITTLE SHIT!"

Her cold, bony fingers clawed at his skin and drew blood, before finding purchase around his frail neck as she screams and hisses at him. His lone blue eye widened in terror as he struggled to get the fingers away from his throat. He kicked her with all his might, but she hardly budged at all. Gasping for air, he gave up on her fingers and focused on clawing those accusing orbs out of her skull, or hitting her, anything, anything to survive.

His lips turning blue, his strength leaving him faster and faster and his aunt's mad laughter filling his ears to the point where he thinks they're going to burst.

But she keeps smashing his head against the floor. His vision blurs for a moment. This is it. 'She's killing me, oh my fucking God, she's murdering me! ' His oxygen depraved brain puts up its last fight for him, pushing the remaining adrenalin into his system and he finally hits her face spot on.

A sickening crunch is heard in the sudden absence of screaming. Ciel's fist is covered in blood. His hand hurts. His aunt's fingers leave his neck to stop the blood flowing freely from her broken nose and busted eyebrow. She screams again. Ciel shuffles away from the bloody heap on the floor as fast as he can; gasping for air as his lungs tries to drag down as much oxygen as humanly possible.

Crawling on all fours he makes his way to the door, grabs his bag from the porch and with nowhere to flee, he moves as fast as he can upstairs.

His bedroom, the only safe haven he has. So far.

Finally back in his own room, he locked the door, pushed one of the bookshelves in front of it and just now, he collapsed on his bed. His head, still throbbing from the impact on the floor.

Sighing, and trying to keep his breathing normal, he gingerly touches his neck. Immediately, he whimpers. Oh, he doesn't need a mirror to know what his throat looks like. Long, slender dark blue stripes shaped as fingers covers it completely. It hurts to breathe. Yet he does so anyway. Neither his body, nor his mind has given up yet. He's just happy he won't need to go to school with these marks-

A muffled scream draws his attention away from his situation. It seems that downstairs, Ann is still shouting and crying whilst smearing the whole kitchen with her own blood along with broken glass and china, but here…Ciel merely sighs and peacefully drifts off to a deep slumber.

After hours of uninterrupted quiet sleep, an annoying beeping pulls Ciel out of his warm and comforting darkness. As his sleepy brain tries to recognize where he is, he realizes what that particular sound is.

He jumps off his bed and grabs his bag.

As he pulls out his phone he is shaking. An unknown number is calling.


	5. Numbers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian googles Ciel's past, then they have an argument over the phone.

Sebastian’s feet were comfortably placed on his table, as he sighed and leaned backwards into his well-worn leather armchair. The only light illuminating his pale features were the screen of the laptop, placed neatly in the middle of the antique desk, on top of a few ‘important’ work related documents.

 

Well, nothing could be more important than what he was currently reading. As he lazily scrolled the page he had opened, he saw a headline that drew his attention and his feet met the thick carpet with a soft ‘thump’. ‘ _Car crash claims three victims…14 th of December_’ “…Almost six years ago…” he murmured to himself and clicked the link, opening a new page that showed a photograph of a horrible car crash, whilst the text below described the incident.

 

Sebastian’s eyes danced across the page. There really wasn’t much to read about the Phantomhive family tragedy. Only that the accident killed both his parents and the truck driver that had fallen asleep whilst driving. It also seemed that the 14th was Ciel’s birthday, because the article mentioned that the lone survivor, a boy aged ten, the only son of the Phantomhive couple, became an orphan on his birthday.

 

When no more were to be found about the accident, Sebastian continued searching online for a moment or two. Before a thought struck him and made him feel slightly nauseous. ‘ _God damn it, I’m turning myself into a bloody stalker…_ ’ After all, there really wasn’t any more information to find. Except for his cell phone number, but he already got that, he’d searched that out in a matter of seconds the moment Ciel had ran away to get home.

 

He sighed and stretched his arms and back. A light ‘pop’ was heard and he groaned, yawning a little. The library was his favourite room, but it sure enough made him tired to just sit alone in a dark room, surrounded by the scent of old books. Not that he didn’t like books, quite the opposite. Lazily scratching the back of his head, he checked the time and suppressed another yawn.

 

“Almost eight thirty…I wonder if I dare to call him?” he thought out loud. None of the antique paintings decorating the few bare spots on his walls answered him. ‘ _He’s going to be so mad at me, I just know it…Oh well, what damage can it make? Besides, it’s not like I have anyone else to call…_ ’ His long fingers stretched towards the device with his blood throbbing in his ears and tapped out the number. Then he waited. And waited.

 

\---

 

Pearls of sweat forming on his forehead, he stares, astonished at the greenish display of his phone. ‘ _Who the hell is this? I don’t know this number! I bet it’s just a jerk from school…_ ’ His trembling finger met the red button and the mysterious caller was abruptly interrupted.

 

Ciel let out a breath he didn’t knew he’d been holding as he sat down on the edge of his bed, before he scooted into the middle of it, relaxing a little. He jerked, as his phone started buzzing. ‘ _A text?_ ’ Ciel’s fingers quickly opened the message and froze. The text simply read; “ _Hey, it’s me, Sebastian. Pick up the phone please; I’m going to call you again_.”

 

When the phone rang this time, he answered within seconds, hands shaking.

 

“H-hello?” Ciel whispered, afraid his aunt would come running any moment, kicking down his door or slashing it open with her chainsaw. He shuddered at the thought and cleared his still aching throat carefully, “I-I mean hi!”

“Hi Ciel! I’m-” Sebastian’s cheery tone was immediately interrupted as Ciel spoke again, “How the hell did you get my number??” The low voice turned into an unexpected hiss from the teen’s lips that even surprised himself.

“Um…I got it online?” Sebastian frowned and shifted, slightly uncomfortable in his armchair.

“Oh. Ah…sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so mad…I was…surprised, that’s all.” Ciel bit his lip in frustration of his own stupidity. It was uncalled for to be so impolite.

 

A deep sigh was heard in Sebastian’s end of the line.

“I’m sorry, but you ran away before I could ask you for your number. It’s not like I wanted to stalk you or something-.” ‘ _No! Fuck, don’t say things like tha-_ ’

 

A short, but hearty laugh interrupted Sebastian’s train of thoughts.

“Seriously! Sebastian, you’re hilarious.” Ciel shook his head as he allowed himself a very rare chuckle escape from his lips. His left hand traced the creases in the bed as he spoke. “I really enjoyed talking to you, today.”

“Um…thanks. So…what are you up to anyway?” Sebastian sat up and started to close down his computer, but halted at the sudden silence in the phone. “Ciel? You okay?”

 

Ciel fell silent as his smile faded. He couldn’t tell him about his aunt. No. No way. He hurriedly grabbed a book from his nightstand and pulled it into his lap. (Almost knocking over the alarm clock in the process.)

 

He didn’t want to lie to Sebastian, but he didn’t trust him enough to spill those secrets yet anyway. “I…I was just reading…something. Um, how about you? Did you go to work anyway?” A brief sense of relief flooded though his chest as he managed to steer the question over to Sebastian instead.

 

“Reading, that’s good. I like to read too. Oh, me?” Sebastian cleared his throat. “Yeah, well…my boss didn’t like the fact that I showed up at lunchtime…He threatened to fire me if I ever did it again.”

“What?! Oh my God, I’m so sorry I screwed up things for you-”

“Nah, don’t worry. It was worth it. I got to meet you.” Sebastian grinned widely to himself. ‘ _Work today was wonderful, since that obnoxious red-head pretended to be sick because I didn’t show up this morning,_ ’ he thought, but didn’t mention it.

 

“Really? I mean, I don’t want you to lose your job…I mean, just because of me.”

“Ciel, listen. It’s okay. Don’t worry about me. I just didn’t want to lose a friend when I just got one, that’s all.”

“Wait…Do you consider us friends?” Ciel’s mouth gaped. He couldn’t believe what he just heard. Sebastian…the good looking stranger, considered _Ciel_ , the small lousy, good-for-nothing, idiot, a _friend_? ‘ _It can’t be…_ ’Ciel thought.

 

“Yeah. Well, at least I thought so?” Sebastian’s uncertainty was poison to Ciel’s ear.

Ciel thought for a moment and then he said, “Can we really become friends when you’ve only met me today?”

“Of course. At least I think we can. Don’t you want me as a friend?”

“Of course I want! I-um, I mean yes, I’d like that.” Ciel looked over his shoulder, afraid his aunt had heard his sudden outburst. No sound was heard outside so he shrugged off the uneasy feeling that prickled down his spine.

 

Sebastian chuckled, “Well that’s good. So, should we get to know each other a little bit more then?”

“Um, Okay? But how?” Ciel shot a glance towards the barricaded door and felt more comfortable when he realized his aunt must’ve fallen asleep by now. She always got to bed early whenever she’d beaten him, or had her fill with wine or whiskey. Or both.

 

Sebastian smiled, “Let’s reveal things we like and don’t like for a start, okay? I’ll go first.”

“Sure, sounds fun!” Ciel shifted in his bed and moved a few pillows before he seated himself with his back against the headboard.

 

Sebastian cleared his throat and said, “I love cats.”

Ciel glanced at the book on his bed and silently closed it before he answered. “Cats? Really? Umm…”

“What? Don’t you like cats?” Sebastian sounded shocked.

“I…I’m allergic.” Ciel stared at the black, nearly worn-out blanket covering his bed.

“Oh. Well nothing to do about that, then. Your turn, something _you_ like.”

“ I…umm. I love strawberries.” Ciel’s face felt hot. _‘Why does his voice sound so goddamn nice? No! Stop that, you stupid brain!’_ Ciel forced his thoughts to focus again, as Sebastian spoke, “Ah, I bet you love chocolate too, mm…maybe chocolate covered strawberries?”

 

Ciel allowed his thoughts to wander to a strawberry combined with melted chocolate…he nearly started drooling. “Y-yeah. That’s right.”

“Hah, I knew it!” Sebastian’s triumphant voice made Ciel feel brave enough to ask what had been on his mind since the very second he’d answered that call.

 

“Sebastian can I -…” Ciel’s voice broke off with a sigh. But when he made no effort to pick up where he left off, Sebastian simply said, “Yes?”

“I was…just wondering if…you know…I-um…” his courage faltered him again. Sebastian sighed theatrically and tried to encourage him further, “Come on. I won’t bite... Unless you really want me to…”

“Sebastian!” Ciel’s face turned a shade above radish at the sound of Sebastian’s voice turning low and seductive in his ear.

There was a soft laugh and then, “Come on, I was only joking!”

“Ah, good. No, I mean- um…” Ciel shook his head and blurted out, “Can I see you again?”

“Of course you can. Anytime you want. You got my number now, give me a call sometime. And you know what, calm down. I can hear you’re nervous. I won’t harm you, Ciel. I promise.”

“Only people who _intend_ to harm promise the opposite.” Ciel’s voice sounded unexpectedly harsh, even in his own ears. He regretted it the moment the words slipped over his tongue.

“Oh. Well then I don’t. Promise, I mean.”

“This…I think we’re moving too fast.” Ciel sighed and slumped back against the pillows.

“Ciel. We’re not dating!”

“No! That’s not what I meant! I- God damn it! I’m not used to people!” He threw the book in his lap forcefully away from him and it hit the wall with a sad bump.

“I know. I noticed that.” Sebastian’s calm voice did nothing to quench Ciel’s sudden anger and he replied with a sharp edge in his voice.

“Noticed what?”

“You’re avoiding people.” The blunt matter-of-factly tone made Ciel even more upset.

“Of course I am! You’d be avoiding people too, if you’d been-”

 

\---

  
Sebastian never got to hear what Ciel was going to tell him in the fit of rage he was experiencing. At least not now, since his phone’s battery died on him. He cursed loudly and threw the phone away. He didn’t even notice the sound when it met its untimely demise against the hard, polished wooden floor and shattered into a dozen pieces.

 

\---

 

“-beaten the shit out of you every day! Do you really think I feel comfortable around…Hey?! Are you listening to me! Sebastian...? Bloody piece of shit phone!”

 

His anger threatened to boil over, but after a few forced deep breaths he just relaxed. Ciel sighed and allowed his tired body to fall back against the pillows once more, grasping his phone so tight in his hand it hurt. ‘ _What have I done?_ _Now I’ll never be friends with Sebastian. Like, never-fucking-ever. And why does that make me feel so sad?’_

 

He held his phone up to his face again. The screen glowed a lazy green. Wait a second. It was still on? Then…did Sebastian hang up on him? _‘That bloody bastard. So-called ‘friend’ Tch!’_

His teeth made a gnashing sound as he fought the sinking feeling in his stomach and dove beneath the blankets and pillows. Maybe he could get some sleep. Maybe if he tried hard enough, he wouldn’t have to relive the crash again this night.

\---

Tiny pieces shattered all over the floor of what once had been a fully functioning mobile phone was frantically gathered by a man whose hysterical features were covered by his black hair. His long legs folded beneath him, he swept the remaining few bits and pieces into his hand and rose from the floor to proceed to dump them onto his ebony desk.

 

A low curse escaped from his lips between clenched teeth as he began to fit the scraps together. By the time he had managed to piece it back together, his head felt like mush. More than half an hour of intense scrap-picking and puzzling the device together took its toll. A spare battery was quickly acquired from his desk drawer, whilst he silently smacked himself in the head for being such an idiot. A finger danced across the cracked screen before it found the teen’s number.

 

Only a few moments later, a very sleepy voice answered his call.

 

\---

 

Beeping loudly and buzzing, the old phone made its way deeper into the tangled mess of Ciel’s lumpy bed. When its owner finally came enough to his senses to know just what was going on, the phone kept buzzing and making that ear-splitting noise. An insistent caller then.

A lot of shuffling of blankets made Ciel a little annoyed before he stifled a yawn and pushed the button to answer without checking the screen. ‘ _Wait…what did I just-_ ’ His train of thought was abruptly interrupted by a frantic voice in his ear.

 

“Ciel! I’m so sorry, the battery died on me and I threw it in the wall-” His unoccupied hand nervously traced the engravings in his black desk as he spoke to the only person so far to catch his attention enough to make him call that person _twice_ , in one evening. Sebastian didn’t know what it was, but something felt strange about that young man. Sure, he didn’t want to be touched and he had obviously issues with his aunt. However, that did _not_ explain this sudden feeling of need to talk to him. Or did it?

 

“I…Uh…what?” Ciel tried to understand what was being said, but his mind just ran in circles. ‘ _Sebastian? He didn’t hang up on me? He wants to talk to me?_ ’ A strange feeling spread from Ciel’s middle, all the way out to his toes and fingertips. Others might have recognized this reaction as relief, but Ciel just shuddered in dismay.

 

“Yeah…the battery died. And…well…I’m calling you back?” Sebastian’s voice sounded uncertain, almost like he was regretting his decision. He cleared his throat and continued before the teen could interrupt him. “Ciel…there’s something about you…I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I want to see you again too. We could just talk, all right?” Complete and utter silence at the other end. Then a small whisper reached Sebastian’s ear. He had to strain himself to make out any words.

 

“It’s Ann…can’t talk…wait. Okay? Just…wait a moment…I’ll be back soon.” Sebastian stared at the phone in his hand. “ _Just what the hell is going on with his aunt? Is she mental?_ ” Sebastian sighed and waited, trying to catch any sound of what might be going on in the home of Ciel Phantomhive.

 

Ciel had been so caught up in the fact that Sebastian had actually called him again, he’d forgotten that the sound of his cell might have disturbed his aunt’s alcohol induced sleep.

 

He felt his skin prickle as he silently laid the phone on his bed, slipping off the edge of the mattress and tip-toeing towards the door. He knew it would have been terribly bad luck for his aunt to actually wake up by the sound of his phone, but he needed to be sure. Besides-

 

_Crash!_

 

The distinctive sound of a dropped bottle made his caution sky-rocket and now, he was breathing shallowly, pressing his warm ear against the hard, cold wooden door, his hearing being disturbed by the beating of his heart. He heard nothing, except for the blood flowing through his veins for a long moment. He forced himself to breathe more properly, and he finally heard it.

 

Someone was dragging their feet across the creaking floor downstairs, not far from the staircase. He listened intently; sweat threatening to pearl on his forehead. But he relaxed as he heard the noise of a cupboard opening and then close. She’d just been up for another bottle. He released a shaky breath and waited until the steps had faded before he dared to venture back to his bed and pick up the phone again.

 

“Hey… I’m back.” Ciel scooted up to the headboard once more and made himself a little nest of the pillows and the almost threadbare blanket, curling up into a ball. He had expected Sebastian to hang up, and was quite surprised when the velvet voice was still there.

 

“Hello again.” Sebastian had risen from his comfy black leather chair and had paced the small library whilst waiting. Now, he had stopped in front of one of the many large bookcases covering the walls of his favourite room, his fingers touching the old volumes delicately, almost lovingly, as he spoke. “Um…everything okay with you?”

 

“Yeah…I’m fine.” Ciel gazed out the small window. The black sky was littered with hundreds of stars, around an almost full moon nearly hidden behind a dark cloud. “It was a false alarm,” he continued.

 

“So…what do you say? Should we meet up again?” Sebastian’s fingers found the book he’d been looking for. Being a slight insomniac, reading sometimes helped him fall asleep. But not necessarily boring books. Carefully, not to harm the fragile binding, he pulled the old book out.

 

“Sure! Um...just not too soon though.” Ciel carefully swept his fingers across the finger-shaped soon-to-be bruises on his throat. He winced at his own touch.

 

“Well…I’m free on Sunday. If that isn’t too soon…” His hand gently placed the aged book on his desk, dusting off the cover to reveal the author and title, printed in gold; Goethe’s “Faust”.

 

“Sunday?” Ciel flung himself to one side of the bed, reaching for the drawer on his nightstand, pulling out a small cracked mirror. “Uuum…” he said, whilst mentally groaning at the sight of his throat. The bruise wasn’t soon-to-be; the marks were already taking on a very distinctive blue-ish hue that stood out from his otherwise pale skin. Suddenly he had made up his mind. “Yeah. Sunday’s fine. Let’s meet up at the library, yeah?” He threw the mirror back into its drawer and relaxed back into the bed.

 

“Alright! Good. I like the library. There are books there.” Sebastian could have bitten his tongue at that stupid outburst, but he merely sighed and continued, “I’ll let you sleep in peace now, it’s pretty late…” but before he could say goodbye, Ciel interrupted, “No, please don’t stop talking to me. It’s not even midnight yet…” Ciel wanted to smash his head against the wall for sounding so desperate, but he stopped himself, it would probably only make the dull ache in his head worse.

 

“You know…” Sebastian shook his head. “I need to get up practically at dawn tomorrow morning. We can talk all Sunday; let’s meet up early, too. Besides, since it’s technically Friday in a matter of half an hour you only need to wait two days. And I never said you couldn’t call me, Ciel.” Sebastian glanced at the book, swiftly deciding it was too boring to read before sleeping. He had a hunch he wouldn’t have any problems with his sleep tonight. With a slight smirk on his lips, he left it on the table and headed for his bedroom.

 

Ciel’s heart felt warmer at Sebastian’s words. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. So…goodnight then. ” The bluenette stared at the green light emerging from his alarm clock. His head suddenly felt very heavy and Sebastian’s voice started to feel sort of distant. “I’ll call or text you before I arrive at the library, okay? Goodnight, Ciel.” After hearing Ciel’s murmuring reply, Sebastian ended the call with a smile growing wider than ever on his lips.

 

\---

 

Sunday couldn’t arrive soon enough, yet it was coming too soon. Ciel woke up, feeling relaxed after a complete night of sleep for once. Friday. Just Saturday and then…He really needed to find a way to conceal the cuts and bruises he was sporting now. Deciding that the absolute best course of action today was to stay away from aunt Ann, he didn’t move away the bookshelf. He did have a bathroom which included a shower and, even if it was a really sad excuse for a bathroom, he needed to wash up.

 

After he’d brushed his teeth and washed his face, he slipped on a nice dark blue button-up shirt, and he finally relaxed a little. If he turned up the collar and wore a scarf or something, no one would be able see the bruises, unless they knew they were there. ‘ _But the scarf will pretty much scream that something’s wrong, anyway…_ ’

 

Giving up a small sigh, he knelt beside his bed and pried open a loose floorboard to reveal a small bag of emergency food. Ciel opened the package and quickly realized he’d be able to survive without needing to go downstairs for the following two days, unless he wanted an encounter with Ann.

 

About that, though…why was it so quiet? Ciel looked up at his bedroom door. He hadn’t heard anything from below since that bottle-fetching. He scowled at the thought of Ann. Really, the woman was insane. He kept finding reasons to leave this… _this Hell_ , but once the thought of an orphanage hit his mind, he’d decided that he would endure whatever torture Ann might put him through, because she was his mother’s sister. “ _And she resembles mother so much when she’s sober_ ,” Ciel thought and sighed.

 

Grabbing a piece of cheese and a few crackers he fetched his old and tattered copy of “ _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ ”. He climbed up on the bed, lied down on his back, holding the book up with his scrawny arms. He didn’t even finish three pages until his arms ached like mad. He lazily allowed the book to fall to his chest with a muffled ‘ _thump’_.

 

With a sigh he rolled over, accidentally crushing a cracker with his elbow, and propped the book up on a pillow instead. After five crackers and almost four chapters, he found himself thinking, “ _Well, at least the Dursleys never tried to strangle Harry Potter…_ ”

 


	6. “Books”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel waits until he can see Sebastian, covering up a few bruises in the meantime. Sebastian struggles to cope with an annoying Grell at work.

 

 

Friday evening. A small shape was sitting on the hard wooden floor in a first floor bedroom, flicking through the pages of a well worn sketch book, before closing it carefully.

 

Ciel sighed, smearing out some coal with his fingertips on a piece of cloth. That was his fourth drawing today. For once he really didn’t feel like drawing anything. But he needed to keep his mind busy, or he might hear the sad excuse of a guardian weeping on the sitting room floor, probably surrounded by empty bottles. At least he knew she was alive now. Not that it made him jump with glee.

 

The coal refused to go away, so the bluenette rose from his place on the floor and headed towards the small sink, in what could be called a bathroom for midgets. He was glad it still worked though; otherwise he would’ve had to go downstairs. He shuddered at the mere thought as he scrubbed his hands and fingers red. As he traced his bruises again, he rummaged around in the cupboard beneath the sink. He found an old black nail polish bottle and a small tin of concealer amongst a couple of old wine bottles and a few dead spiders.

 

Once back in his room, he fetched the broken hand mirror from his drawer and sat down on his bed. He didn’t trust the chair in front of his desk with the twenty year old computer; it had a wonky leg which almost had fallen off. Peering into the mirror, he clumsily added the concealer to his throat, effectively covering up most of the blue marks. ‘ _…this will have to work on Sunday. I can’t do it any better; I really hope Sebastian_ _won’t notice anything_.’

 

With a sigh he gave up on trying to cover the bruises, he placed the tin in the drawer together with the mirror as he wiped off the make-up on his throat. He didn’t need to hide them if he wasn’t seeing anyone. But he _was_ meeting up with Sebastian on Sunday morning. He actually felt giddy at the mere thought. He stepped in front of the window and yanked the aged curtain out of the way, before opening it wide and breathing in some fresh air. When he let the breath out, it was as if his whole body deflated, leaving him feeling worn out and tired of thinking what to do to make time move faster.

 

He rested his arms on the windowsill and looked at the empty street below. It shouldn’t have been so dark, seeing it was the middle of summer, but the rain clouds had seemed to decide that the best place to dump all water would be here, right outside Ciel’s window. Well, probably the whole town, but it felt like it had concentrated on his house only. It didn’t make much difference though, seeing as Ciel wouldn’t be able to sneak out through his window if the tiles on the porch were wet. He might as well break his neck if he tried, and he was fairly certain he would rather have his neck in one piece for the next few decades. He fiddled with his eye-patch and tightened the knot a little, to make sure it sat where it was supposed to.

 

He stretched his right arm out, as far as he could, and caught a drop or two with his fingertips. He shivered and withdrew his arm, wiping it off on his shirt. ‘ _Damn the rain’s cold_.’ Staring silently on the water drenching the garden and the street, he sighed. He really wanted to get out of the damned house but he wasn’t stupid enough to risk his life on the porch-roof and he definitively didn’t want to accidentally disturb Ann. Not for the cost of a few hours in freedom.

 

His mind unintentionally scurried away and he found himself wondering what Sebastian was up to. ‘ _I really want to call him, if only to hear his voice and to know I haven’t just been dreaming. But I can’t call him…what if he becomes angry because I’m disturbing him at work? And, besides, I don’t have much money on my phone…’_ He gritted his teeth in annoyance. ‘ _Only because every single penny I earned this summer went either to food or clothes… Well, at least won’t be wearing rags this school year_. _Not that anyone is going to notice that…I’m still the half-blind faggot there…its all Alois’ fault_. _He promised not to tell anyone…_ ’

 

He swallowed hard, his throat burning, as he slammed the window shut with unintentional force, making it rattle in its frame, before he slid down on the floor beneath the window, deciding to just listen to the sound of the heavy rain. The storm inside him seemed to subside a little, along with the crashing noise of water hitting the window above his head. His lone sapphire blue eye slowly slid shut as his mind gradually relaxed.

 

\---

 

Sebastian sighed. Talking to his boss had not gone as smooth as he’d hoped.

 

According to his boss, Grell could wear whatever clothes he wanted to work, not being obligated to wear the customary white shirts, also, it was Sebastian’s own fault if Grell’s clothing strained his eyes, and no one forced him to look. ‘ _As if anyone can ignore those colours when they’re sitting right next to them!_ ’ Sebastian had huffed. The manager had then outright told Sebastian that if he wanted to keep his job, he’d sit happily next to Mr. Sutcliff and come to work on time.

 

Tapping his pen against a document he tried to read through, he shot a glance to his left side. He was still stuck with his desk next to that obnoxious red-head. Who, at the moment, completely refused to shut up about how ‘awful’ it was outside, since the constant raining would ruin his hair...

 

Sebastian gazed down at the paper once more, the words becoming blurred as he tried to focus with that constant chatter in his ear. To relax his eyes a moment, he looked to his right, out through the large window he also was placed next to.

 

He watched the rain crash against the flat surface and slowly trickle downwards, but he groaned as he saw the red reflection of his colleague grinning back at him. Being half a second away from slamming his head down on the desk, he abruptly stood up, deciding that a little walk to the coffee machine and back would be an excellent idea. ‘ _Perhaps some caffeine would do me good…_ ’

 

As he walked past Grell, who was ogling his butt as usual, he was immediately reminded of the warning he’d got from Ciel, the words echoing throughout his mind. ‘ _Right. Make sure he doesn’t get anywhere near my cup. Gotcha._ ’ He smiled at the thought of the kind bluenette.

 

\---

 

Grell watched the handsome dark-haired man stand from his desk and leave to… ‘ _Oh my god, that arse!_ ’…as it seemed, to get some coffee. When Sebastian had vanished out of sight around the corner, he quickly shot a glance around the room, but no one was looking his way. Normally, that would have offended him deeply, but now, he needed to proceed with his task unnoticed.

 

He quickly jumped from one desk to another, planting his own butt where Sebastian’s had been only moments earlier. He allowed himself to rejoice in that fact that it was still warm, before he looked over his shoulder again. No one in the office looked his way.

 

His hand travelled inside one of his pockets to retrieve what looked like a small ball. He carefully hid the black circular item half behind Sebastian’s computer screen, half behind a framed picture of Sebastian and a man that looked eerily like the raven himself, except the glasses and the bored expression. Grell smacked his lips; Sebastian was much more handsome than that thin spidery-looking character behind glass. He was just a bleak copy of his Sebby.

 

Grell giggled as he jumped back to his own desk, just in time before Sebastian appeared back around the corner with a steaming mug of coffee in hand and briefly shot a glance at Grell when the raven walked past him.

 

Grell leant over his computer, opening a small window on the screen and saw how Sebastian placed his coffee mug somewhere out of view of the webcam he’d just placed there. Giggling rather loudly again, he suddenly saw Sebastian glance towards him with a questioning look and he quickly regained some lost composure, seemingly tapping out some random words in an email. As soon as Sebastian returned to his own work, it was needless to say that no paperwork of importance was accomplished that day by a certain Grell Sutcliffe.

\---

Sebastian glanced at the red-head. He was being quieter than ever before. ‘ _Have I died and gone to bloody heaven??_ ’ It actually looked like Grell was working. Bent over his desk, with his eyes glued to the screen. ‘ _Oh well,_ _as long as he leaves me alone I’m happy_.’ Sebastian sighed, folding a piece paper on his desk neatly into a miniature plane. He was just waiting until the clock turned five so he could leave this bloody boring office and his bloody boring job. ‘ _And return home to a bloody boring life_ …’ a little voice in his head finished for him.

 

He had been working fast, just in case Grell would start to annoy him again so he couldn’t work. He really didn’t need another meeting with his boss where he would have to explain why Grell was annoying or, himself as to why he hadn’t been working. Not that he actually _needed_ to work, not with the family fortune being recently passed down to him. But he did need to support himself until all the paperwork was finished; so he was stuck at work.

 

Resting his head in his right hand, he lazily pushed the tiny paper sculpture across his desk, past some stray pencils and down into the bin. Picking up a new scrap of paper, he decided to fold a small bird this time. Allowing his thoughts to wander freely as he carefully executed each small crease, he thought of Ciel and a small smile found its way to his otherwise expressionless face. He wondered what the captivating blue-haired teen was up to.

 

When the clock finally decided it was time to strike five, Sebastian was the first to run out of the building where he was, for the time being, employed. Jogging, almost running, he made his way to his small black car, hurriedly got in and threw his briefcase into the backseat and drove off home.

 

The sound of gravel on a driveway disturbed the peace that lingered over the Michaelis’ Manor. Sebastian was finally home after a tiresome and mentally trying day. Stepping out of the car, he stretched and ruffled his hair into his preferred tousled look, rather than the nicely combed hair he was supposed to keep at the office.

 

He ignored his small piece of luggage in the car and walked quickly up to the grand entrance of his manor, wanting to get out of the fairly light rain as fast as he could. Pushing his hand in his trouser pocket, he pulled out a rather large collection of intricate looking keys. Unlocking the door he stepped inside, wiped his shoes and the rather musty smell of old books and, perhaps mouldy, curtains hit his nostrils, making him grimace. He really would have to get this place a good dusting before he invited anyone over. ‘ _Not that I’ll have anyone to invite’_ , he thought grimly. He quickly decided to head for the library and he criss-crossed between the boxes in the hallway that contained his things from his old flat. Un-packing was tedious and he already got his most needful things, so he ignored the boxes once again and stepped over them.

 

As he was walking across the large open spaces in the manor, his footsteps clicked loudly and lonely, echoing off the walls and making some of the old paintings of unknown relatives release some of the fine dust into the air. He hadn’t bothered to even check all the rooms yet; he’d just been interested in the more usable ones. Such as the large library, or the magnificent bedroom, the fine kitchen or perhaps the room he preferred to call a ‘living room’ rather than the more suiting term; ‘ball room’. Sebastian wasn’t that fond of dancing, hence the renaming.

 

Placing his large right hand on the thick wooden door to the library, he suddenly thought he’d heard something. He froze on the spot, trying to listen if there would be another noise, but there was none. Having waited a few more moments, he decided it was foolish to stand in his own home and imagine such silly things. He turned his attention towards the door once more and proceeded to enter his library, intending to spend the evening reading and relaxing his worn-out mind.

 

\---

Ciel was snoring. His right cheek was uncomfortably squashed against the floorboards. He was lying on his side, just beneath the window. It hadn’t stopped raining yet, it had only receded into a light trickle against the glass above Ciel’s sleeping body.

 

The hours of evening came and went, and when Ciel finally woke up, his right arm was numb and he had drooled all over his cheek. Yawning, he tried to stand on wobbly legs as he hurriedly wiped his face with his sleeve, before he stumbled towards the bathroom. His stomach was at least not as starved as he had become forced to be accustomed to.

 

Washing his face in the cold water, his mind cleared a bit and he decided to check his bruises. They weren’t beautiful, but he’d manage. At least they didn’t look any worse than the last time he’d checked. He rested his palms on the edges of the sink, gazing straight into his mirrored image. He preferred his broken hand mirror. This bathroom mirror showed him the mutilated half of his face far too precise.

 

His hand flew up to the eye-patch and covered it, trying to imagine how his face would have looked like if he’d had both of his eyes. He stared for a moment longer before he quickly left the room. A swift glance towards his clock told him it was late, really late. ‘ _As it turns out, sleeping wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Already Saturday…Not many hours left now_.’ He smiled to himself. Now, he really hoped, with all of his broken shards too few to even call them a soul, that Sebastian wasn’t just a weirdo…or an axe-murderer.

 

Ciel pulled out his hidden treasure from beneath his bed. It was a trunk, filled to the brim with books. He shifted through the volumes and plucking a few out of the trunk, placing them in a pile next to him on the floor. ‘ _I might as well take these with me when I’m going to the library,_ ’ he thought. ‘ _Perhaps Sebastian can recommend a few good ones I haven’t read already?_ ’

 

He placed the books near the door, so he wouldn’t forget them on Sunday. Not that he had much else to remember. Ciel just felt a need to have everything ready so he could leave as soon as Sebastian phoned him. All that is left is to wait. One more day. ‘ _Just one more lousy day_.’ Ciel sighed and kicked the trunk back under his bed again.

 

He paced the small room, too alert to go to bed. Thoughts of what might actually happen to him if he decided to trust a stranger flew through his mind. Gory images of mutilated corpses appeared in his head. ‘ _No_.’ He stopped pacing. ‘ _Sebastian_ _won’t_ _hurt_ _me_.’ “I just know he won’t”, he said out loud. Sighing deeply, he came to the conclusion that he might as well try to sleep anyway. Time went by faster then anyway. Slumping down on the covers of the lumpy bed, he hid his face in the old blanket. It smelled like the house; like fresh lies and old tears, like new confidence and past weaknesses. Ciel fell asleep once more, with the determination that he’d be safe with Sebastian. Safer, than with anyone else.

 

\---

Saturday went past much like the evening before. Ciel kept pacing his room, with his stomach growling. Eating a little, then pacing some more. Reading, drawing and staring for hours out through the rain covered window.

 

The day seemed endless not only for him, but for Sebastian as well. Sebastian wasn’t pacing his bedroom floor in anxiety; he was tearing strands of his hair out in pure frustration that he’d agreed to work Saturday’s as well. Not that he’d had a choice, would he have refused, he would have been fired. Immediately. He couldn’t do that.

 

As the hours slowly turned from evening to night, Ciel started to feel nauseous. He sat on his bed in his pyjamas, holding his knees close to himself. ‘ _What if I’m walking straight into a trap? What if he’s going to kidnap me and kill me? Or worse, rape me?_ ’ Ciel shuddered and decided that such thoughts were useless to think as they were most certainly false. What was strange though, was that his aunt had not once stalked up to his room demanding him to open it. It was as if she didn’t exist anymore. The teen was more than happy to leave her alone if that was what she wanted. She probably wasn’t even home.

 

A quick glance to the softly glowing green clock told him it was soon morning. Sighing, he closed his tired eyelid, fell to his side and tried to get some sleep. He’d been awake most of last night and all day, which made him so tired he could sleep standing. Only, now he couldn’t sleep because he had a stomach that was tied up in a dozen knots.

 

\---

 

As the first rays of sunlight slowly found their way into the room where the bluenette slept soundly, it was the early morning of the 20th of July. A Sunday. Or, to be more precise, it was _The_ Sunday. But the unconscious teen paid no mind in the land of dreams. Not until the shrill noise of his phone woke him up. A lot of shuffling and groaning occurred before Ciel found his cell and answered.

 

“Fwah?” Ciel croaked.

“Ciel? Are you ready?” Sebastian’s smooth voice seemed to tickle his ear, and all of a sudden he was wide awake. Jumping about with his leg stuck in his pyjama bottoms and trying to put on a new shirt as he simultaneously tried to utter coherent sentences into his phone, proved to be quite difficult. Sebastian’s amused laughter filled his ear and he couldn’t help the smile that sneaked its way into his features when he promised he’d hurry to the library as soon as humanly possible.

 

He hung up and threw the phone on the pile with books he was going to return. As he stumbled, half-dressed into the bathroom, he caught a glimpse of his image in the mirror. His usually fluffy hair was falling around his face in lumps. He’d forgotten to shower. ‘ _Daaaaamn!_ ’ Ciel shred himself of the clothes he was only half-wearing, before he practically flew into the constricted space that was the shower and washed up as quickly as he could.

 

Stepping out of the shower, sopping wet all over the old carpet, he dried his hair off with a towel before he wrapped it around his narrow hips and stood in front of the mirror again. ‘ _Right. Eye-patch and concealer._ ’ He rummaged around in the bathroom cupboard before he found his new eye-patch in black silk he’d bought to use in school. Tying it on and smearing on the skin-coloured make-up took another few, rather painful, minutes. When he was done, Ciel craned his neck, trying to see if all the bruises were properly covered. Satisfied with the results, he pulled on the black shirt again, darted out to his bedroom to pull on his pants and rummaged around in his closet until he found a nice thin black tie and a pair of light grey suspenders. Thinking for a moment, he decided the suspenders were better suited to his shirt, and tossed the tie back into the closet.

 

When he had managed to properly dress himself and made sure he didn’t wear anything backwards, he allowed himself a moment to breathe. He was nervous. Nervous that Sebastian wouldn’t show up, nervous that Sebastian would use him in some sick, perverted way, or... ‘ _No. He wouldn’t be used by Sebastian. Stop thinking such things!_ ’ He smacked his forehead with his palm. “Shut. Up,” he whispered. He pulled a hand through his almost-dry hair and looked at the jacket, which was, in fact matching his trousers. He was holding it on an arm’s length, studying it intently.

 

After a moment of thought, he left the jacket in the closet. Peering out the window, it seemed to become a fairly sunny day and he didn’t want to start sweating the first thing he did. Running back into the bathroom, he made sure his breath didn’t smell like road kill by brushing his teeth and he desperately tried to comb his bluish hair. Giving up the impossible task, since his hair was practically fizzing with electricity from the rough towel-drying, he paced towards the bookshelf blocking the way downstairs.

 

Once he’d shuffled the pile of books into a bag along with his phone, he slowly pushed it aside. The floorboards creaked and moaned beneath the heavy piece of furniture as it made its way past the doorframe to reveal the exit. Ciel didn’t want to climb through the window again, that was merely for emergency situations.

 

He grabbed his bag of books, threw it over his right shoulder and turned the handle. Opening the door as little as possible, he peered out the crack. No-one there. The bluenette let out a shaky breath in pure relief. He slid out, closed the door behind him, and moved slowly and silently towards the stairs.

 

The maroon coloured carpet covering the floor and stairs did well to stifle his steps as he carefully walked. Reaching the end, he looked both ways, saw no-one and made a run for the door. He made it, of course, because when he approached the door he noticed a piece of paper, with his name on it, nailed to the old wood.

 

Ann had left him notes before, about where she was going and such. But it had been a long time since she’d done something like that. Usually, she was too drunk for that. Confused, he ripped it down and unfolded it.

 

‘ _I’m out. Back ltr_ ’

And in tiny letters scribbled by a sloppy handwriting underneath; ‘ _you little gay piece of shit_ ’.

 

Ciel crushed the small paper in his hand and threw it over his shoulder. Nothing would ruin his good mood today. Especially not written insults by a deranged aunt, being a legal guardian or not. He opened the door, crossed the ill-managed lawn and headed straight for the library.

 

 


	7. The Fortune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The go to the library and the redhead makes an appearance.

Chapter Seven

“The Fortune”

 

Sebastian arrived at the public library at six in the morning. He was wearing a fresh white button-up shirt, leaving the top two undone; assured there would be a warm and sunny day.

 

Waiting in his car, parked in one of the few parking spots assigned to the library, he phoned Ciel and asked if he was ready, to which there came an eager response. When he had hung up, Sebastian tapped his fingers on the car’s dashboard and hummed. As waiting in the car got tedious after a while, he stepped out of it and swept his eyes across the empty street. He started walking in circles outside the building for a while, too excited to stand still. It hadn’t opened yet, and wouldn’t do so for another half hour.

 

He stopped pacing and returned to lean his back against his car, hands in his pockets. About ten minutes before his watch would turn seven, just when he was about to call Ciel again, he saw someone approaching from across the street. Looked like that someone was jogging. He squinted his eyes. Nope. That wasn’t Ciel. Sighing, he returned to pacing, as the stranger soon jogged past both him and the library. A few minutes later though, he saw the teen. He was half-running too. Had something happened to him?

 

Ciel kept a hard grip on the bag of books that gently thumped into his back with each bouncing step he took. The hurried pace he kept towards the man who was standing on the other side of the street, was a produce of nervousness. Ciel quickly shoved a hand into his hair, smoothing it down a bit, and slowed down into a more respectable speed. Sebastian waved at him. The knots in Ciel’s stomach undid themselves and he waved back, smiling. Then he saw what was behind the man.

 

“Hello Ciel!” Sebastian sported a lopsided smirk at the teen. ‘ _Oh my…what a_ _nice_ _outfit you’ve got_ _there_ …’ he halted his thoughts and bit his tongue mentally. ‘ _He’s too young_. _Shame on you, Sebastian_.’ He sighed. ‘ _It’s all because of those suspenders…_ ’

 

The tall male by the car started to walk toward him, to greet him, but Ciel suddenly stared past him and locked eyes with the car. Mouth agape, he strode past Sebastian and stopped, astonished, in front of the vehicle.

“Wha- that’s… Sebastian, is that…your car?” Ciel turned, only to watch the amused grin of Sebastian. “Seriously?” He threw his arms up in a ‘what-the-hell’-motion and took another step towards the car. “Why didn’t you tell me you got a 70’s Dodge Charger!”

“Um,” Sebastian started, “I didn’t think you’d find it that interesting, really.”

“Not interesting! It’s, like, awesome!” Ciel lowered a hand to gently touch the smooth pearl black painted bonnet. “It’s, like, _more_ than awesome.”

“Well, I’m glad you like it.” Sebastian couldn’t help but to feel a little proud over his beloved car. He caught sight of the gray haired librarian, slowly treading up the stairs to unlock the doors. He tapped Ciel on his left shoulder and said, “Hey, you can drool over my ‘Black Beauty’ later, looks like the library’s finally opening.”

Ciel winced, almost unnoticeable, at the light touch. Sebastian had accidentally nudged a bruise and the unwelcome memories of the reason behind those bruises flooded back into his mind for a split second, before he managed to push them far away in his mind. “Okay. I’ll drool over your car later. ” The bluenette threw one final longing glance at the shiny Dodge over his shoulder as they both walked up the stairs together.

 

Sebastian looked at him out of the corner of his eye as he treaded up the steps. He silently wondered why Ciel had jumped at his touch. A flash of concern and worry flew by his eyes and made itself at home in his heart.

 

\---

 

As Ciel dumped the borrowed books on the librarian’s desk to be returned, he looked at Sebastian standing behind him. “Soo. How can you afford such a car with your job?” Ciel said, an inscrutable look plastered over his pale features.

 

“Oh. Um…we’ll discuss that later.” Sebastian nodded slightly at the old man, currently busied with scribbling down some notes on a small piece of paper. As he watched, he thought, ‘ _Is he seriously doing stuff like this without a computer? This is going to take agesss…_ ’

 

“Later?” Ciel glanced at the librarian and nodded, “Okay. Got any nice books you could recommend then?”

 

Sebastian thought the teen had addressed the wrinkly old geezer and was genuinely surprised when Ciel softly nudged him on his arm.

“Oi! Are you even listening to me?” Ciel muttered grumpily.

“Sorry-”, Sebastian scratched the back of his neck.

“Shut up and name some good books instead.” Ciel shifted the weight on his feet, looking at Sebastian intently, as if he would judge him solely by his choice of books.

“Uh. I don’t know?”

“Come on. What’s the latest book you’ve read? Novel, newspapers…come on, _anything_.”

 

Ciel tapped the desk impatiently, waiting for the green light from the librarian that the books weren’t late. He looked like he’d fallen asleep, burying his nose so deep into the paper he was writing on. He returned his gaze towards Sebastian, whom was light-years nicer to look at.

 

Sebastian thought for a moment, and then he said, “Well, I’ve just finished reading a short story I really liked, ‘The man with the twisted lip’, by-”

“That’s a Holmes’ story!” Ciel interrupted and practically beamed like a small sun at the thought that Sebastian might like to read Sherlock stories as well.

“Yes? Have you read it too?” Sebastian leaned a hand on the librarian’s desk, who cleared his throat noisily. He handed Ciel the piece of paper he’d been writing on. The teen read it quickly and then handed it back and turned his attention towards his companion.

“Yeah, I’ve got the ‘Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ and it’s, like, one of fifty or something short stories in that volume.”

“So, you’re a Sherlock fan then?” Sebastian silently wished the younger would say yes.

“Yeah, you could say that.” The teen smirked.

 

Turning his back on the old man, he picked up his empty bag from the floor. “Now, let’s go.”

 

The bluenette walked towards the furthest end of the library, where a few round tables were positioned, surrounded by bookshelves, making it look like a small reading room.

 

He pulled out a chair by the table in the furthest corner and sat down with his back to a dusty bookshelf, dropping his bag on the table. Sebastian followed, without asking why, and sat down in an uncomfortable wooden chair. “This is my favourite spot in the whole library,” Ciel continued, “since not many people bother to stay long enough to sit down.” As he drops down on the chair opposite to the raven, neither of them say anything, so he rests his lone eye on Sebastian’s face for a moment or two.

 

‘ _He’s so…Can he even look more perfect? Seriously_ , _I don’t care if he’s older than me…Mmmh, I wonder if his hair is as smooth as it-_ ’

 

Sebastian squirmed in his seat, “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”

 

“No.” Ciel tried to clear his throat, but he ended up sounding like a strangled cat instead. ‘ _Oh, well, nothing other than those gorgeous eyes- shuut uuuup you stupid brain!_ ’

 

Sebastian smiled at the failed attempt, but suddenly turned dead-serious, “Alright. You wanted to know about my car. Right?” Sebastian leant forward and placed his elbows on the very edge of the table, folding his fingers together as he spoke.

 

“Yes, that’s right. How could you afford it?” Ciel narrowed his eye. “Did you rob a bank?”

 

“No, I most certainly didn’t!” Shock was evident on his face at the teen’s outburst.

 

Ciel laughed, “Come on, I was only joking! I don’t _seriously_ think that.” ‘ _You’re like, way too hot to be a lousy bank robber-_ ’ the thought was gone as soon as it had invaded his mind, but the mental image of Sebastian brandishing a gun and driving off in his black muscle car with screeching tires lingered in the back of his mind, just a few moments longer than necessary.

 

The older male let out a ragged breath and tore Ciel from his dreaming thoughts. “Good. Now, you need to know that I have a brother.”

“A brother?” Ciel blinked.

“Yes. His name is Claude, and he’s five years older than me. A pain in the arse if you ask me, but we used to get along well when I was little. Or, well at least until a few years ago.” He paused and looked awkwardly at Ciel.

“I get it. But what does that have to do with your car?” Ciel frowned.

 

Sebastian placed his palms flat against the wood and leant forward, “Alright, listen carefully.” He let out an almost inaudible sigh. “Five months ago, our father died-”

Ciel gasped, “I’m so sorry-”

“No, no, no, don’t be, he was an arse.” He waved his hand dismissingly. “Anyway, it seems now that he had a lot of money that no one knew about. Money that I inherited, not my brother.”

 

An awkward silence fell between them, until the younger of the pair spoke up, “Like, how much are we talking here?” Ciel did a vague gesture in the air, as if to measure a pile of imaginary bills on the table in front of them.

“A lot. Money, and our family estate, the Michaelis’ Manor. It all belongs to me now.”

 

Sebastian cleared his throat. His palms were beginning to sweat. “About the money, I think I could buy Buckingham Palace, and then have enough money left to live a life in luxury, until I break all records and live to be two hundred.” He chuckled at the insane thought. “Only thing is, when I heard that I’d-”

“You…you’re _rich_?” Ciel croaked, his mouth slightly agape and disbelief thick in his voice.

Sebastian sagged in his chair. “Not quite.”

“Then…I don’t understand?” Ciel looked more confused than ever.

“I don’t have the money yet. Since it’s such a huge amount, there’s a lot of paperwork and stuff. But I didn’t think of that when I bought the car. I didn’t know it would take so much time to sort it all out.” Sebastian sighed and folded his hands in his lap, studying them.

 

Ciel looked at the man, no, more like studying him; how his white shirt hugged his slim body and the flow of his black hair that was casually brushed behind an ear, a few strands still falling stubbornly in front of his face. Then he said, “So, basically, you’re saying that you’re filthy rich, but right now you own a car you can’t afford?”

 

Sebastian’s head snapped up, nodding, “Yes, that’s quite right.”

Ciel gaped. “B-but when-? And what about your brother? Isn’t he mad at you?”

“I got a phone call from the bank today; I’m going to get the money by the end of this month. And Claude, yes. Well, he found out about the money when I did, of course. So we did a friendly agreement that I’d give him one third of the fortune and he’d never bother me again.”

“You are going to _pay_ him to stay away from you?” The teen stared at him for a moment, “Do you really hate him that much?”

Sebastian resumed the staring at his hands as he softly spoke, “No. He’s still my brother…I wanted to give him his fair share of the money, to split it fifty-fifty, but he didn’t want more money. He just…I don’t know…” Sebastian sighed. “It’s just…he hates me, because he blames me for our mother’s death.”

 

The eerie silence following those words wrapped itself around the mind of the bluenette, making his chest feel restricted and uncomfortably tight. Images of his own mother flashed before his eyes. She was always smiling and laughing whenever he thought of her, but he couldn’t think of her. It simply hurt too much, still. The plagued expression of the raven’s beautiful face did nothing to soothe the strange feeling in Ciel’s body. It made it worse, rather.

 

“W-what happened?”

Sebastian looked up quickly, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh-Okay. It’s okay, I understand.” Ciel fiddled with his thumbs. He didn’t know what else to say.

 

The uncomfortable silence stretched out over a couple of long minutes. Then Ciel unconsciously reached for his neck and scratched it. He didn’t notice the smears of make up on his fingernails. Suddenly, Sebastian’s head snapped up and locked eyes with him. He wasn’t observing, he was _staring_. Ciel swallowed and wiped his palms on his trousers as he almost _felt_ that gaze slipping over his features.

 

“What’s…what’s that on your throat?” Sebastian’s voice was gentle and concerned. At first, Ciel didn’t understand what he had meant. Then the realization hit him like a hammer. He slapped both his hands over the bruises in sheer panic and stammered, “N-nothing, there’s nothing to see!”

“Are-are those _bruises_?!” Sebastian stood up and was at his side a second later, kneeling by his chair. “Let me see, Ciel.” He reached out a hand-

“ _No_!” Ciel smacked the hand away, furiously, as he stood and tried to move backwards, only, the massive bookshelf was behind him, cornering him. “Don’t touch me!” All at once, he started hyperventilating, “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, please, don’t-”

“It’s okay, calm down; just-…” he fell silent and looked him in the eye. “I won’t hurt you, Ciel,” he whispered. “I swear I won’t.” Sebastian withdrew his hands and held them up to show that he honestly meant no harm.

 

Ciel’s mind went on overload, repeating the same things over and over, while his head was spinning and made him feel dizzy. ‘ _Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm-keep-calm-keep…he won’t hurt me. He won’t hurt me. I trust him. ‘Calm down Ciel’ Yes. Calm. I must-calm-down, he’s not going to hurt me…He’s-_ ’

“Ciel?” Sebastian’s hushed voice slid into the consciousness of the boy and dragged him back into the real world once more.

“Yeah?” Ciel’s strained voice sounded strange in his own ears. He blinked.

“I won’t tell anyone.” He smiled solemnly. “I don’t even _have_ anyone else to tell.” Sebastian lightly touched Ciel’s upper arm.

 

Ciel stared at the fingers lingering on his arm. He could feel the warm touch through the thin cloth of his shirt. His head felt numb. He looked up into a pair of worried, deep brown, no, burgundy eyes. He became aware of his hands dropping and did nothing to prevent it from happening. He heard Sebastian gasp; he felt the warm hand leave his arm. The shock on his face going past him unnoticed as he clenched his eye shut tighter than ever. ‘ _I_ _never_ _wanted for you to see that, never_. _Never in a million years, not you of all people, not_ you.’

 

When he opened his eye again, he noticed Sebastian was still kneeling in front of him, staring at the finger-sized bluish marks draped across his thin windpipe. Ciel felt awkward, standing pressed into a bookshelf like that, but he didn’t move.

“Sebastian?” The teen bit his lip and glanced down at him, trying to catch a glimpse of his face. Tried to make out if he was angry or not. If he was leaving or not.

“Who did this to you?” Sebastian’s voice was laced with an edge he had not heard before.

“N-no one, I fell out of my bed an-”

“Lies.” Sebastian whispered softly. He looked up to meet the sapphire gaze and continued, “It’s that aunt of yours, isn’t it? _She_ did this to you.”

 

Ciel didn’t know what to say. It was true, yes. But what if he told someone? ‘ _I’d end up at the orphanage again. I can’t let that happen-_ ’

 

“It’s nothing, just leave it.” Ciel stated firmly, avoiding the other’s gaze. But he was utterly surprised when the man before him rose to his feet and he was pulled into an unexpectedly warm embrace.

 

He was so shocked, it didn’t even cross his mind to struggle against the firm hold on him. He just stared, unseeingly, into the shoulder of Sebastian. He felt his shirt crumpling on his back where Sebastian’s hands held him. He felt the soft touch of a breath on the top of his head, lightly stirring a few strands of his hair. ‘ _This is…he’s-he’s touching me-_ ’ A sudden realization hit Ciel,‘- _and… and-I don’t hate it._ ’

 

Ciel passively stood there, enveloped by the much larger man’s warmth and reassurance. He rebelled against all other sense and reason and simply relaxed into the hug and suddenly leant his head right on Sebastian’s chest. A moment later, he wished he hadn’t. Sebastian pulled away from him. ‘ _Oh my God, what is he going to do?_ ’ A sudden horror struck him. ‘ _Oh no, please don’t say I have to go to the police or the hospital, or-_ ’

“How do you feel?” Sebastian still kept him within an arm’s length, his hand on Ciel’s shoulder.

“Um. I’m fine. Really.” Ciel stared at his shoes. “And…thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, Ciel.” Sebastian smiled gently and eyed him up and down. He felt quite sick at the thought that the teen actually thanked him for a hug, something that no one would feel obligated to thank anyone for. But then he realized he might have thanked him for the comfort it gave him. Nevertheless, a spark of determination flickered to life in Sebastian’s burgundy eyes. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“Eeerm…what?” The teen looked up, brows tightly knitted together.

“Would you care to share some scrambled eggs at my house?” Sebastian silently wondered if he was being too forward, surely he was going to reject him?

“Yeah. Sure.” He sighed and quietly muttered, “I’m out of food at home anyways.” Then he looked Sebastian straight in the eye, “Don’t even think of any funny business!”

“I-, God no, it’s not anything like that, I promise. Just eating. Okay?”

Ciel nodded.

 

\---

 

They stood at the ignored table amidst the many shelves of books, when Ciel reached for his bag, and a sudden unexpected noise made them freeze on the spot. Both heard someone whose voice made their skin prickle at the mental image alone.

 

“It’s Grell!” came the desperate whisper from Sebastian’s lips. “What are we going to do?!” The clicking of Grell’s sharp heels was resonated loudly throughout the whole library, his determined steps leading towards them.

 

Ciel peeked out from behind their protective bookshelf and observed the red-head as he walked between the rows of books. “Um…looks like he’s searching for a book, actually.”

Sebastian stared at him, “A book! You actually think- Look, he knows what kind of car I have, and I swear he’s stalking me!”

 

Ciel looked at him, a small smile threatening to overtake his lips again. “Come here.” He pulled Sebastian with him by his shirtsleeve towards the edge of the bookshelf and made him look at Grell.

 

After a moment of surveillance, they noticed that Grell had stopped among a row of books, humming, whilst thoughtfully stroking the backs of a few volumes and tapping his necklace. Sebastian strained his eyes to see just _what_ kind section he was looking into. “T-that's...the erotica section-” he whispered, as he turned to face Ciel.

 

“I bet he's looking up some new tricks he can try out on you,” the teen replied, smiling at the look of horror on the other's face.

“Help me. Please, Ciel, if he sees me…” Sebastian swallowed and returned to watch if Grell had moved. The red-head was currently pulling out another book, flicking through some of the pages, licking his lips and humming approvingly.

“Okay.” Ciel murmured, threw his empty bag over his shoulder, grabbed Sebastian’s shirt by the elbow and pulled a little, as if afraid of touching the arm itself beneath the fabric. “Come on, let’s go this way.” Sebastian nodded, wordlessly and tagged along.

 

The teen led the way opposite of Grell and his humming. Walking silently, so that they might perhaps avoid the man, the sneaked in and out between shelves, all the time keeping a watchful eye on Grell, in case he decided to move. After passing another five or six rows of shelves, they decided to hurry a little more. The sounds of their unconcealed footsteps echoed almost as loud as Grell’s high heels on the chequered marble floor.

 

Finally at the entrance and the large double doors, they heard a shrill voice yelling, “Sebaaaas-chaaaan, darling! Helloooo!”

Sebastian stopped mid-step and swirled around, terror plastered like a death mask on his handsome face. When he saw a whirl of brightly dyed red hair coming running towards them, zigzagging between shelves, he grabbed Ciel’s arm, turned and started to rush down the stairs.

“Hurry up! Get in the car!” Sebastian let go of the teen’s arm and started to search for his keys, before he realized he hadn’t locked it in the first place.

 

Ciel gasped at the pain in his arm, caused not by the forceful grip, but the squeezing on the week-old bruises from his earlier beating. He made his feet sprint faster than usual, and threw himself towards the passenger side of the beautiful car, ripped the door open and flopped down on the leather seat, closing the door with a quick move.

 

On his other side, Sebastian was opening the door, in the same moment as Grell appeared on the top of the stairs. Wild-eyed, Sebastian hurled himself inside the car, chucked the door closed as he simultaneously strapped on his seatbelt and turned the ignition keys. The engine sparked to life and roared like a great big cat. Ciel watched Grell run down the stairs, as he fiddled with the seatbelt. Suddenly, the car roared more furiously as Sebastian set his foot flat on the gas pedal, and they hustled away down the street, leaving a miserable looking coughing Grell behind in the dust and smoke.

 

\---

Allowing himself to breathe out, Sebastian slowed down, dragging his long fingers through his black strands of hair, feeling the adrenaline still flowing through his body like a fast working poison.

 

He followed the road ahead, not actually sure where it led, as he dared a glance sideways, to watch Ciel. He had shrugged off his bag and dropped it to the car’s floor. He was pale, there was no denying it, but the grin that was glued onto his face made Sebastian chuckle.

As Ciel turned to meet his gaze, he burst out, “Oh my GOD, did you see the look on his face?!”

“Yeah,” Sebastian grinned deviously, “he looked like someone had cancelled Christmas!”

The amused laughter filled the inside of the car for a moment, as they revelled in the way they had cheated Grell on his ‘mission’.

 

Ciel then focused on the car he was riding in. He let his hands wander across the leather on his seat, feeling the soft surface and flattened out his palm against the dashboard, just to really _feel_ that it was all real. As it turned out, it was _very_ real.

 

“Do you like her?” the smooth voice of the driver reached his ears.

“Yeah.” Ciel smirked. He’d always wanted to ride in a car like this, not only look at them dreamingly in magazines and such. Now it was real. He felt the thrum of the engine in his back as he relaxed in the seat. “So, where are we going?” he turned his head and rested his gaze on Sebastian.

“To my, if you’d like, ‘Manor’,” he replied, with an exaggerated accent and a smile.

Ciel snorted, “Yeah, sure, _My_ _Lord_ …” he pulled on his sleeves a second and then he thought out loud, “Seriously though, if you’ve inherited a manor, as you say, shouldn’t you be some kind of noble then?”

Sebastian smirked, “Yep, as it turns out, I’m now the rightful owner of the Michaelis’ Manor, Lord Earl Sebastian Michaelis the fifth,” he drawled, being quite unenthusiastic of his title.

 

Ciel merely looked at him with a mischievous grin on his face. “So then it’s alright if I call you ‘ _my Lord_ ’?”

“No, Ciel, please don’t do that.” His grip on the steering wheel tightened for a second, “I don’t want to be treated differently.”

“I won’t.” Ciel looked out the window as they passed street after street. He felt like he needed to say something, to thank Sebastian for being so considerate about his neck, and all. “Um. You know, about those bruises-”

Sebastian cut off his wavering gratefulness and said, ”I’ll give you some salve for those later, they must’ve hurt like hell to cover up with make up, right?”

Ciel bit his lip thoughtfully. “Yeah, it did hurt like hell.”

 

Their conversation stilled when they entered the driveway which led to a large, off-white building. Ciel stared out the windshield, craning his neck, taking in the sight with silent astonishment. The white gravel beneath the black rubber tires groaned beneath the Dodge’s weight and silenced first when the car had stopped outside the garage.

 

Sebastian turned off the engine and stepped out of the car. Making his was swiftly around the vehicle, he opened the door for the teen, who was still trying to get off his seatbelt and Sebastian just waved his hand towards the great entrance with the words, “Welcome to my home, Ciel.”

 


	8. The Manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel inspects Sebastian's home and later calls him a pervert...

Chapter Eight

                  “The Manor”               

 

Sebastian watched as Ciel stepped out of the car, staring. He felt a swelling of pride in him as he gently nudged the paralyzed teen in the direction of the double doors that was the grand entrance.

 

“So this…this is _yours_?” Ciel stopped in front of the stairs, gazing up towards the blue sky, “So, do you like… live here now?”

Sebastian pulled out the keys from his pocket and fumbled with them as he spoke, “Yeah, my brother didn’t want anything to do with the Manor, so…I guess this really is my home now.” He let out a nervous chuckle and turned to unlock the doors. “Nearly all the money I make at that awful job goes to paying my car and heating up this house. Lucky thing I didn’t have to _buy_ the place!”

 

Ciel silently wondered what the interior would look like, if it would remind him of Sebastian in any way. But nothing in his imagination had prepared him for the sight within those double doors. Ciel followed the taller man inside and almost tripped in the dark hallway. ‘ _Boxes?_ ’

“Um, well, you’ll have to excuse the mess; I haven’t unpacked all my stuff from my old apartment yet.” Sebastian slid his hand across the wall, “Hang on, I’ll turn on the light.”

 

When the bulbs in the ceiling turned to life, Ciel blinked and stood there, one hand still on the box that kept him from falling over in the dark. His eye swept over the scene and he saw how high up the ceiling was, how dusty the chequered entrance hall floor was, and how old the paintings seemed to be that littered the walls. By his right, a large mirror, framed in gold was covered in such thick grime; one would probably have to polish it with acid to even see the glass.

 

Sebastian saw the look on Ciel’s face and quickly added, “Well, I haven’t really had any time to clean the place up, you know…and…well I don’t really know how anyway. I don’t want to ruin any of the really old stuff.”

Ciel snapped out of his trance and stepped over the cartons with belongings. “So…have you used any of the rooms, or are they all… er, dusty?”

Sebastian only waved his hand to Ciel, beckoning him to follow, as he opened his mouth once more, “I have cleaned the rooms I knew how to clean, like the library, the kitchen and the master bedroom.”

 

Ciel followed the older man as he showed the way, allowing himself to stop a few moments along the way, to look at a few paintings. After walking in silence for a while, Sebastian suddenly stopped in front of a thick door and Ciel felt how his nose itched from all the dust. Holding his sleeve in front of his face, he sneezed, rather loudly, a couple of times.

Sebastian turned on his heels, “Bless you! Look, I’m really sorry about all the…dust. I mean-”

Ciel just looked up from his wet sleeve, grimaced a little as it touched his wrist; sticking to it, and thought out loud, “Well, you know… I can help…if you’d like me to?”

Sebastian stared at him, one hand on the half open oak door. He thrummed his long, bony fingers against the smooth surface. He blinked. “You…want to help me _clean_?”

 

Ciel looked away, but nodded and said, “Yeah, well you _did_ actually buy me food that time…I sort of feel a bit guilty about that bit”.

Sebastian kept staring at the teen, “Uum…That’s…I mean, I’d be-…Yes. Yes, I would love for you to help me. I’m rubbish at cleaning.”

Ciel’s head snapped up, “Really?”

Sebastian smiled, “Yeah. You know what,” Sebastian leaned against the door, “I’ll pick you up next Sunday, and we’ll polish up this dusty old house together!” He smiled widely, “What do you say?”

Ciel tried not to sound too eager, “Sure! We’ll make this look like a palace!” ‘ _Finally, something meaningful to do during weekends…_ ’

 

He followed the taller man into the room behind that large oak door, only to find himself overwhelmed by the sight of the neatly dusted desk, the shelves surrounding the large room with hundreds of books, most of them very old by the look of it. Ciel stepped further into the room and was delighted to see a pair of armchairs in a corner with a lamp beside them and a fairly large settee in the opposite corner in a beautiful deep red velvet fabric.

 

Ciel stared at all the books littering the walls, “This…is…”

Sebastian walked up behind him, leaning on one of the shelves, “Do you like my little library?” he smirked and continued, “If you help me with the cleaning, as you said, you may borrow as many books as you’d like.”

The teen spun around, taken aback by the words from the raven, “Are you serious?” he whispered, astonished.

“Yeah. Sure.” Sebastian offered a crooked smile and waved his hand towards the door, “Let’s go and have some breakfast, shall we?”   
Ciel did not respond, because as before, his stomach outran him. It grumbled loudly and made him embarrassed. Again.

 

\---

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder. Ciel was sitting at the small table in the kitchen, sweeping his lone eye over the white cabinets and utensils that littered the counters. Eventually, he noticed that the other was looking at him and he blushed. Sebastian smirked and returned his attention to the sizzling bacon and the scrambled eggs in the frying pans he was handling.

 

A few moments later, Ciel and Sebastian was both seated and eating a delicious breakfast, consisting of bacon, fried eggs, some baked beans, ketchup and a couple of sausages with some tea with that. Just like last time when they had both eaten together, Ciel ate as fast as he could, as if he was afraid to be scolded if he didn’t finish quickly enough.

 

A couple of minutes passed in silence, then Sebastian spoke, “Calm down, it’s not an eating-competition.” Ciel looked up from his empty plate, his lips smeared with tomato sauce from the beans. Sebastian chuckled. “You’ve got…a little…” he pointed vaguely towards Ciel’s face and handed him a napkin. With his ears burning red, he bluenette quickly wiped his face, avoiding Sebastian’s eyes as he did so.

 

When Sebastian too was finished, he abruptly stood from the table and cleared off their plates and glasses to empty the table completely.

 

He then went to search for something in one of the cabinets. Ciel watched with great interest how those slim hands grazed the edges of cans, boxes and bottles until they stopped on a small white tube.

 

“Aha!” Sebastian held up the tube with a triumphant smile, spun around and returned to stand next to the table, in front of the bluenette.

“What’s that?” Ciel furrowed his brows and watched as the other male unscrewed the cap.

Sebastian patted the table in front of the young man, “A little something for your neck. Come now, hop onto the table.”

 

“What?!” Ciel’s face twitched. ‘ _No way! What the hell does he think he’s doing?_ ’

Ciel’s fingers gripped the board in front of him tightly.

 

“Come on. It will be easier for me to reach if you’re sitting on the table.”

 

Ciel huffed, “No way. Why don’t you kneel instead.” he narrowed his lone eye with his gaze glued on to the other man, ‘ _No-one is going to boss me around, not any more_.’

 

Sebastian sighed and promptly proceeded to grab the teen by his waist and hoist him up onto the board himself.

 

“W-what are you-…” Ciel went silent the moment those hands grabbed his slim waist. As his bottom hit the board of the table, Sebastian was right in front of him, nestling his way in between his legs as they were dangling from the edge. He felt the blush creeping up over his face. He was too close. ‘ _And far too handsome_ ,’ his brain kindly enough reminded him.

 

“There we go. Not so much trouble, now was it?”

Sebastian didn’t seem to notice how suggestive the whole ordeal was to the teen, as he laid the tube aside and reached for the young man’s shirt buttons. Only to have his hands forcefully smacked away with a sharp yelp.

 

“What the bloody HELL do you think you’re _doing_?!” Ciel’s stomach suddenly felt as if it was filled with ice, as both his arms shot out to keep the other man as far away from him as possible. ‘ _Oh God, he really is a pervert. What have I gotten myself into! Oh my gooood…_ ’ Ciel’s head flopped down between his arms, now holding on to the others shoulders, rather than pushing him away.

 

“Ciel? I’m trying to help you with the bruises? I can’t reach them properly if you don’t undo the top two buttons-” All of a sudden, realization hit the raven like a hammer in the head, “Ciel! I don’t know _what_ you were thinking, but I am most certainly _not_ going to…I-I mean-… I’m not-” Sebastian looked at the mop of bluish hair right beneath his chin. “Look, I only wanted to help, I didn’t mean to freak you out, okay?” The older watched carefully as the head slowly tipped up to gaze at him. “I never meant to do anything you might disapprove of, I swear on my mother’s grave.” Ciel kept staring at him, his expression unreadable. “Do you want me to back off?”

 

“No. No… It’s okay.” Ciel straightened up, and withdrew his hands to busy themselves with the buttons of his shirt. “I was just…scared. I mean, that you might…Ugh, I dunno.”

 

Sebastian watched him carefully and said softly, “There’s no need to be afraid of me, I promise. I didn’t think. I’m sorry.”

 

Ciel glanced back up at Sebastian, “Okay, but you don’t have to lift me around like I’m some kind of _baby_ …”

Sebastian smirked, “Well, you are pretty tiny for your-”

“Shut UP!” Ciel’s cheeks blossomed beet-red, “I am NOT tiny!”

“Alright, alright. Now, chin up, literally.” Sebastian placed a finger beneath the angry teen’s chin to make him tilt his head back. Surprisingly enough, the bluenette complied.

 

Sebastian lathered his long fingers with the salve and started to gently rub it on the dark marks that stained the milky white skin of the teen before him. Ciel only winced a little, but it was clear to anyone that watched him that it hurt. Ciel wasn’t going to let it show, though.

 

Staring into the ceiling, he simply gritted his teeth and accepted the pain, like he had done so many times before. Instead of the pain, he tried to focus on other things, such as how it felt to be touched by gentle hands instead of hands trying to strangle him.

 

Sebastian’s hands were warm, unlike aunt Ann’s icy cold skin that previously had grasped his throat. Ciel slowly closed his eyes and focused on the warm fingers that rubbed over his throat. He felt every brush and swipe against the collar of his shirt and it tickled the nape of his neck a little. Only an excruciating amount of self control made sure that the warmth that spread to his nether regions were not further developed. When the hands suddenly retreated from his skin, he felt robbed of the pleasure they had provided.

 

“That should do the trick.” Sebastian said whilst drying off his hands on some paper, backing away from the teen as he went to the bin, throwing the soiled paper away. He turned to face the young man again, “Does it feel any better yet?”

 

Ciel tried to ignore the heat that pulsed through his veins, and as he focused on his throat, he felt a chilling sensation spread wherever the salve was rubbed in; making it feel like it cooled the ache as it went. Delicately pressing a finger to his throat, it still felt warm to the touch. But the dull pain had started to subside more and more. “Actually, it feels much better now, thanks a lot.”

 

“You’re welcome.” Sebastian sat down in one of the kitchen chairs next to the table.

 

The bluenette slid off the table and stood awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen. With not much else to say, he brushed off an invisible stain on his black shirt and straightened the straps of his suspenders.

 

Sebastian cleared his throat, “I must say your dress-sense is fantastic, you look smarter than many grown men.”

Ciel furrowed his brows, “Are you trying to flatter me?”

“Yeah, a little. Would you mind if I did?” Sebastian clasped his hands in his lap. “I’m trying to be kind and casual, but I don’t really know how to act with…others.”

“I see... Well, I guess its okay. You look pretty smart, too.” Ciel could have bitten his own tongue off. ‘ _What the hell was that?_ ’ “Um, I mean…” Ciel bit his lip, “…never mind.”

“Not too comfortable amongst others either?”

“Nah, reading’s more my kind of thing.” Ciel shifted his weight between his feet. “About…next week. Are you going to come by my house to pick me up? Or should we meet somewhere else?”

“Whatever you wish. If you don’t want your aunt to see me, maybe we could meet up a few houses away from yours?” Sebastian pushed himself out of the chair and proceeded to fill up a glass of water for himself.

“Yeah, that sounds fair.” Ciel smiled, feeling happier than he’d been for a long time.

 

Sebastian took a quick swig of water and seemed to think for a moment, before he confessed, “I told my boss that I wish to quit at the end of this month.”

 

Ciel snapped out of Ann-free thoughts and looked at Sebastian, “What did he say?”

 

“Weeell…he seemed pretty pleased with it, actually…I’m not going to miss the place.”

 

“I wonder how Grell is going to take it, I mean, when you pack up your stuff and leave.”

 

“Hah! Yeah, well at least he’s left me alone these last few days. Looks like he’s been busy staring at his computer.”

 

Ciel raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean he’s been _working_? Seriously?”

 

“Yep.” Another sip from the glass in his hands followed his words.

 

“He must be up to something.”

 

“Maybe our boss told him to actually start working?”

 

“Nah, hardly. That’s not how Grell rolls.” The teen crossed his arms in front of his chest, “I mean, the only goals he’s ever had is mainly to put as many notches in his headboard as possible.”

 

“I would very much like to avoid becoming such a notch.” Sebastian shivered at the uncomfortable thought and placed the empty glass on the kitchen’s counter.

 

Ciel watched those slender fingers leave blurred, misty stains on the glass, but he ripped his eye away from the scene and wondered, “So…when you quit your job, what are you going to do?”

 

The raven mimicked the teen and crossed his arms as well before he answered, “I don’t know?” He shrugged, “Clean?”

The choice of answer made Ciel laugh. “Surely you’re not gonna spend every day cleaning!”

“I guess I can squeeze in some reading as well.” Sebastian smiled, his eyes beaming.

Ciel shook his head, “Alright, we might as well get started, where do you keep your…um…Cleaning stuff?”

 

\---

“I’ve oiled the hinges on the doors I’ve used, so we’ll probably need to oil every last door in the entire Manor, if all of them are as squeaky as these were.”

 

Sebastian’s muffled voice came to him from the corridor, where the older man was currently searching everywhere after a bottle of more polish for the silverware. Ciel sighed at the thought, but then he imagined how the place would look when they were finished. Tall, bright and beautiful…The mere image of his imagination spurred him to polish the silver with even more energy. ‘ _I’m going to love this place…_ ’

 

\---

“My…hands…” Ciel groaned and slouched in the settee in Sebastian’s library. The familiar scent of tea hit his nostrils and he closed his eye in momentary bliss, inhaled the sweet scent deeply, the same moment as Sebastian entered the room.

 

Carrying a large silver tray, where a pot of tea accompanied with a pair of teacups were perched, he smiled towards the exhausted teen. When Sebastian placed the tray on his small coffee table in front of the teen’s knees, Ciel noticed the tray was littered with biscuits, sandwiches and snacks for them both.

 

Sebastian sank down on the settee next to Ciel with a relaxed sigh. Allowing himself a few moments, to feel how much the muscles in his arms ached after the hours of endless scrubbing, he waved his hand to the tray and said, “Please try whatever you want, I brought a few different things…I don’t really know what you like yet.”

 

“Thanks!” Ciel immediately snatched one of the delicious-looking cream puffs, but solemnly set it back down on the tray and replaced it with a sandwich, after a sour glare from Sebastian.

 

“No desserts before you’ve eaten _food_ , Ciel.” He reached for a sandwich himself and threw the teen a mischievous smirk.

“Yeah, well I know you’re right, but I can’t help it-” he had to stop talking to chew and Sebastian chipped in, “You’re a real sweet-tooth, aren’t you?”

Ciel simply nodded as Sebastian poured them both a nice hot cup of tea each.

 

As Sebastian handed him the cup, the teen smiled and said, mouth full, “Where did you buy these, they taste _amazing_.”

Sebastian reached for a second piece of bread, and mumbled something beneath his breath.

“What?” Ciel looked at him, “Did you make these?”

Sebastian looked away, seemingly ashamed, “Yes.”

“Then why are you…” Ciel gave him a confused glance.

“They’re not my best, because I can’t afford any better!” Sebastian finally blurted out.

 

Ciel stared at him for a moment and then he shook his head, saying “Sebastian, we’re not going to have an argument about your sandwiching skills. Not now and not later.”

The older looked up and just nodded, pleased to drop the subject.

 

The teen licked his fingers and said, “What time is it?”

Sebastian rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out an old shabby wristwatch. “Just a few minutes past four.” Ciel reached out to re-claim his cream puff, and added, “So, we’ve actually been cleaning all day long.”

“Yep. Seems like it.”

“You _do_ realize we wasted the first day with actual sunlight for weeks, to _clean_?”

Sebastian chuckled, “Oh yes.”

“What are we going to clean up next?”

 

Sebastian shot him a surprised glance, “ _Next_ thing?! We’ve only been sitting down a few minutes for a super-late-lunch and just now, you’re already-”

“Hey, I’m not planning on moving from this spot in the nearest half hour or so-” Ciel smiled, tapping the velvet fabric, “-but I was just curious on which rooms we should take on next…”

 

“Oh…right.” Sebastian swept his fingers through his hair, “We’ve got about…forty more rooms, I think. Plus a few rooms where the household staff was supposed to live.”

Ciel chuckled, “That’s…gonna keep us busy another few days I think.” he sat down his finished tea and stood up.

“Hang on; we don’t have to do every room _now_!” The horror in Sebastian’s eyes made Ciel give out a new small laugh.

“Relax, I’m going to the bathroom, okay?” As Ciel smiled and turned to leave, as he passed the thick oak door, he heard the other shout after him, “I suppose you know the way by now, considering the elbow grease you put in it!”

 

\---

Sebastian watched the young man disappear out of his sight. He rested his eyes on the spot where he’d last seen that mop of unruly hair vanish and he sighed. A deep, uncharacteristic sigh, that reverberated throughout all his being. He closed his eyes tight. His stomach fluttered, his palms were sticky and his lungs felt like they were restricted by some unseen force, or perhaps the air had gotten thicker somehow?

 

Groaning, he rubbed his temples. Holding his head in his hands, he slowly opened his eyes again, his right hand slowly moving towards the spot where Ciel had been sitting, as if it was moving on its own. The backrest of the small couch was warm. Feeling the warmth the young man had left behind; made Sebastian certain it was all real. ‘ _I’ve got a mate. I’ve seriously made myself a real friend._ ’

 

He chuckled to himself, but then he remembered the hug in the library. That hadn’t felt like a hug between friends. If he was totally honest to himself, he had wanted to go further than a simple hug. ‘ _Much_ further,’ his mind helpfully added. His left hand clenched into a fist and he silently hit himself in the head, trying to will himself to stop thinking of that alluring deep blue eye, that so easily made him drown in its depth, that slim waist, so easily embraced by himself-

 

Faint footsteps echoed in the corridor outside the library. He straightened himself up a bit.

 

\---

As Ciel headed back towards the library, his mind was spinning with only one thing. Or, rather, one _person_. It seemed to be impossible to get that tall black haired man out of his head, not that he minded, _oh no_ , not at all. It was more that he was devastated at the thought of Sebastian because he knew he didn’t like him. Well, at least not in _that_ way.

 

No one would be able to bear looking at him without his eye patch on, that was a fact Ciel knew. His classmates had made that _quite_ clear. Several times, in fact.

 

He allowed his mind to wander away to Sebastian again. ‘ _Oh I might as well bloody admit it. He’s like, totally handsome. And there’s nothing I can do about the fact that I’m a freak. We’ll become good friends so I at least can be close to him, if nothing else…_ ’

 

Ciel’s right hand subconsciously wandered up to his mangled eye as his train of thought reached the usual dark thoughts he kept. As he pushed the thick door to the library aside, he did the same to his unnerving thoughts. Sebastian smiled towards him and pointed to a lonely cream puff on the tray.

 

“Saved it for you.”

“Ah, thanks!” Ciel plopped down next to Sebastian again, greedily grabbing the treat as the other held out the tray for him. As Ciel munched away, he thought of something and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

“Got a pen?”

“Sure.” Sebastian pulled out a fancy looking black and gold fountain pen from the small drawer on the coffee table and handed it to the teen.

Ciel looked at the pen and noticed a golden crest, not larger than his nail on his pinkie-finger, with a large, rather swirly “M” and a proud raven perched in its centre. “Nice pen,” he smiled, flattened out the paper on the table and leant forwards to scribble down a few words.

“Here.” He handed Sebastian the small paper. “It’s my home address.” He added, before Sebastian could ask.

“Oh, thanks.” Sebastian looked at the handwriting for a moment whilst the ink dried, before he folded the slip of paper and placed into his breast pocket of his white shirt.

 

\---

“Thanks for the ride!” Ciel waved at Sebastian as the black car slowly made its way out on the road again, watching the other wave back, sporting a wide smirk. It was going to be dark soon, but Ciel stood for a long time on the brown lawn in front of the tattered building he called home, straining his ears to listen to the faint roar of Sebastian’s car in the distance.

 

After a while, he threw the bag (which he’d almost forgotten in Sebastian’s car) over his shoulder and ventured inside. It was cold and empty. The sheer difference between Sebastian’s home and this, made him want to either scream in frustration or run after Sebastian’s car. He did neither. He just sighed and treaded the staircase towards his room.

 

He stopped in the doorway and stared at the greyish walls surrounding him. His mind feeling numb, his body as empty as a shell, his soul still trapped with Sebastian on their way here, in the warmth of his car. He slowly approached the window, tracing the frame that kept the glass from fleeing its confines. He felt he could discuss everything with Sebastian, they’d even talked about the accident, and Ciel had felt that Sebastian deserved to know about his troubled past. ‘ _But I just can’t tell him about_ that _. Not yet_.’ He sighed. ‘ _Not yet_.’

 

He dumped the bag on the floor in front of his bed and was ripped from his dreamlike haze at the ‘ _thump_ ’ of something hard hitting the floor. Confused, he knelt and opened his bag. His fingers found something familiar, and as he pulled the thing out of the bag and stood, his hands held a slightly worn copy of Dan Brown’s ‘ _Angels and Demons’_.

 

He wondered why he hadn’t noticed the weight of it when he’d walked inside. But he reckoned it was because he was tired. With a faint smile on his lips, he opened the book. A small folded paper fluttered out and sailed to his feet.

 

He picked it up and walked backwards to his bed to sit down with the book in his lap. He felt his heart beating harder as he unfolded the small sheet. Neat handwriting in black ink was sprawled across the paper;

 

‘ _A little something to read until we meet again_. _Consider it a gift from me_.’

//Sebastian

 

Ciel stared at the paper, then at the book. After a moment, he carefully placed the paper back into the book, before he swung his legs up onto the bed, hugging the book to his chest as he fell asleep.


	9. Angels and Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian goes to pick Ciel up with his car when there's an incident with aunt Ann.  
> Ciel reveals a horrible secret.
> 
> (Also, I've made a mistake in an earlier chapter. Ciel is currently 16, not 15.)

Chapter Nine

“Angels and Demons”

 

Sometime during the week that followed, aunt Anne returned. Not that Ciel actually spoke to her. He was too busy reading the book Sebastian had given him.

 

He longed until he could meet Sebastian again. He was actually excited at the thought of spending another whole day at that house, cleaning the place up to its former glory. The only thing that kept him dreading the inevitable coming of Sunday was that aunt Ann had hit him last night. And not on his back, no. Right in his face. As he turned the page to start reading chapter eighty-five, he unconsciously rubbed his black eye and winced in pain. A small groan left his lips as he gently massaged the already mangled eye.

 

He took a quick look at the watch on his bedside table, and sighed. The green numbers told him it was still too early to get up and the date glared back at him. ‘ _Only the 26 th…?_’

 

Tomorrow felt too far away, yet it came too soon. Again. But this time, he was sure that Sebastian would be okay with the fact that he’d gotten beaten up again. That he wouldn’t phone the police or tell anyone else. ‘ _So what am I so bloody nervous for?_ ’ He tried to touch his eyelid again, but it hurt too much.

 

He decided to ignore the screaming of his name from downstairs, since he didn’t want an additional black eye to match the existing one. Flipping the page he’d finished, he concentrated on his reading. Since it was still pretty early in the morning, he didn’t want to get up to eat, instead he wanted to finish the book as soon as possible, so he could discuss the story with Sebastian tomorrow.

 

His concentration on the book was only disturbed several hours later, at lunchtime. When the familiar noise of the phone called to his attention, Ciel flew out of his bed too fast, making him stumble before he grabbed his phone to answer.

 

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s me. Um…I was wondering…”

 

Sebastian’s voice broke off and Ciel hesitated for a moment before he asked, “Sebastian? What’s wrong?”

 

A nervous chuckle caressed Ciel’s ear from the other end of the line as Sebastian continued, “Nothing. It’s just that…ugh. I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“Oh. About anything in particular?” Ciel paced around the room.

 

“Weeeell…I actually want to know what kind of cars you like?”

 

“Cars?” Ciel furrowed his brows and walked up to his rickety old desk. “Well I guess I like the sixties Mustang. You know the fastback? 1968? Blue. With white stripes.”

 

“Yeah I know that one, that’s a beauty...” Sebastian’s voice drifted off again. He was being awfully quiet, but Ciel could hear him breathe.

 

“…Were you really only calling to find out about my car-preferences?”

 

Sebastian cleared his throat and was silent for another moment.

“Well…It’s Grell.” He finally said with a sigh. “I caught him monitoring me with a hidden webcam on my desk.” The groan on the other end was nearly inaudible.

 

Ciel was quiet for a moment, before his breathless voice whispered, “…what?”

 

“He’s been watching me, Ciel.”

 

“What did you do?” Ciel felt strange, he didn’t want anyone else watching Sebastian, no one!

 

“Well, at first I dug out the webcam and threw it in his face, screamed a little, and then… I made it perfectly clear that he ought to stop it at once, but he threatened to tell our boss I’d been ‘touching him inappropriately’ during work hours.”

 

The deep sigh was cut off by the scream from the teen, “What the _hell_! Go to your boss _right_ _now_ and tell him that Grell’s a bloody freak!”

 

The line was silent a moment, before Sebastian cleared his throat. “I did, and he fired me.”

 

“…he what?” disbelief evident in his voice, Ciel shook his head, “But why? I mean, he’s been harassing _you_ , not the other way around!”

 

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t have to go back there, ever again.”

 

“But…you said to me you needed that job to pay your bills this last month, ‘cuz you didn’t have your money yet, right?”

 

“That is correct, yes. But you see, my boss gave me an entire month’s salary, on the condition that I quit today.”

 

“But…then I don’t understand what you’re worrying about?” Ciel bit his bottom lip thoughtfully. ‘ _Have I missed something here?_ ’

 

“Okay, I might be just stupid, but I’m actually really worried Grell might keep stalking me. You know, going to my house-”

 

Ciel smirked and thought, ‘ _Well, your home can hardly be called a house_ …’ and he cut off Sebastian mid-sentence, “Then we’ll kick his butt right off your property!”

 

Sebastian couldn’t help but laugh at the imaginary image of Grell flying trough the air, arms flailing, hair flying like a gigantic cape around him, landing head-first into a hedge. Preferably thorny. “Okay, I’ll do that.” He chuckled softly, “well, since I’m kicked out from work, I’ll just take the few things that are mine, then I’m free the rest of the day.”

 

Ciel could barely contain his excitement, “Okay, when are you picking me up?”

 

Sebastian chuckled, “Oh, eager now, are we?”

“Shut up-”

 

“Fifteen minutes, on the dot. I’ll wait a couple of houses away from yours.”

 

Ciel grinned from ear to ear, but then he said, “Don’t kill yourself! Drive carefully; you’ve got all day, Sebastian.”

 

“I promise.” Sebastian rose from his office chair with a smirk on his face.

 

”Okay, got it. See yah later then.” Ciel hung up with the widest smile he’d had since he found the book in his bag last week.

 

 

\---

 

Seventeen minutes later, a black dodge slowly passed a rickety old house and stopped exactly two houses away. Tapping his long, lean fingers on the dashboard, the tall black-haired man kept staring in the car’s mirrors, keeping a look-out after a scrawny young man.

 

After a while, he turned the engine off and turned in his seat, to see better. No blue-haired beauty running towards his car, grinning. Sebastian let out a sigh and turned back to face the steering wheel again.

 

Just as Sebastian started to doze off, he was jolted to attention from a blood-curdling scream of agony. His head snapped up as fast as lightning. He knew that voice.

 

\---

When Ciel had hung up, he returned to his book to finish the very last chapter. About twelve minutes later, he shut the book with a satisfied smile on his lips. The book had been great. ‘ _Damn, Sebastian did have good taste in books_ -’ his train of thought was interrupted by his aunt, demanding his presence downstairs yet again. Checking the time, he decided he might as well take the bull by the horns and go talk to her.

 

He raced around the room, fetching a thin black sweater which he pulled over his head, making his hair stick up everywhere. He picked up his bag just in case he’d needed pen and paper. Chucking the book down into the bag as well, he quickly looked in the mirror and grimaced at his eye. Most of the bruise was covered by his eye-patch, but it was still evident what had happened.

 

He pulled his fingers through his hair and swallowed nervously. ‘ _Sebastian is here any minute. I gotta go now. You’d better be quick auntie. Not that you’ll have anything important to say anyway…_ ’ Sighing, he made his way into the corridor, bag on shoulder, carefully locked the door and walked downstairs.  
  
His aunt was standing in the kitchen and glared at him when he entered.

“Hello aunt A-”

“Don’t you ‘aunt’ me you little fuck! Just look at this mess!” She gestured angrily towards the empty counter beside her.

 

Ciel licked his lips. He hadn’t been in the kitchen since yesterday. When she had hit him so hard he got a black eye. He swallowed and shifted on his feet, uneasily. “I-I haven’t-”

 

“What, you never touch _anything_? Is that how your little _lies_ goes now?” Her voice had tensed up to a hoarse whisper that reeked from alcohol as she slowly crept towards the frozen teen.

 

Ciel didn’t dare to blink. Her eyes were huge and bloodied. Her hair a tangled mess and he could swear he would become intoxicated just by standing there inhaling the smell of her.

 

“I haven’t touched anything, Ann…” Suddenly he recognised the sound of the car that slowly passed by, outside the house. A feeling of relief passed throughout his entire being and he turned to his aunt with renewed courage, “I’m sorry, but I really have to leave now-”

  
A heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder as he tried to walk away. Ann’s head tilted to the side, her mouth cracking up into an insane grin. “Aw, you’re going out with your little imaginary friends, now are you?”

 

Ciel tried to wrench her hand away, “I-…Shut UP! I’ve got a _real_ friend!”

“Ooooh, realllly?” her words caught on her tongue, slightly slurred. “I didn’t think you thought Alois was much of a friend, not after he-”

“SHUT UP!” Ciel started to shake; he was so angry and afraid, “JUST SHUT UP!!”

 

Ann revelled in his pain and started anew, in a high pitched sickly sing-sing voice, “Aw, you don’t want to remember what he did to you?” She giggled, shaking his shoulders with a bruising grip and whispered into his ear, making him shiver in disgust, “That he’s got a _filthy mind_ and you’re just the same, you’re just as _disgusting_ as him-”

 

“I…-” Ciel had to swallow over and over, to not ruin his pride by crying or throwing up. The stench of her when she leant towards him was so strong he thought he was going to pass out.

 

He gritted his teeth, the shaking never stopped, his ears hurting from her screams as she started talking again, her voice going from mocking to murderous, “That he got you aaaall nice and drugged up, now didn’t he. It was because you turned _fucking queer_ , don’t you realize that? It’s your own fucking fault that you went and got yourself FUCKING RA-”

 

“SHUT UUUUP!”

 

Ciel snapped. A raw scream, so loud he had never heard anything quite like it, echoed between the walls of the small kitchen. His fingers scrambled for something on the counter, just _something_ to hit her disgusting, stupid head with, and they closed around a thin handle.

 

Swinging his new-found weapon, the scream stilled as the sickening thud of metal against flesh was heard.

 

Ann slumped to the floor without a sound. Ciel’s throat felt unnaturally dry. He tried to breathe, but the shallow breaths that managed to escape down his lungs didn’t seem to contain any oxygen.

 

He dropped the frying-pan as his grip slackened. He couldn’t hear the sound as it hit the floor, his mind a jumbled mess of anger, hurt and deep hatred. His lone eye flickered across the scene and the ringing in his ears didn’t want to stop.

 

He was still shaking. He held up his hands and watched them shiver in front of him. It scared him, because he couldn’t do anything to stop it. He abruptly took a swaying step backwards, which broke the trance and all of a sudden he was scrambling towards the door.

 

Shaking hands tried to grab the handle and failed several times before he managed to open the door and the cool air hit his senses like a sledgehammer. He swayed a moment on top of the stairs. In the periphery of his vision, he noticed a man stumbling out of a black car. As he fell, head-first into the dead grass he thought he heard someone scream. He wasn’t sure.

 

\---

 

Sebastian ran, as fast as his long legs bore him, when he saw the young man tilt forwards. He even yelled his name, but he didn’t seem to hear him. He could only witness as the blue mess of hair made contact with the lawn. The tall man cursed beneath his breath and jumped over the small fence, hurrying towards Ciel. He knelt beside him, gently turning him over on his back. He quickly dropped his head down; his cheek to the teen’s slightly parted lips.

 

‘ _He’s still breathing. Thank goodness._ ’ Sebastian let out a shaky breath and relaxed a little, the first fright subduing and he started searching after any kind of injures on the younger, but found nothing, beside the rather ugly-looking black eye.

 

His hand froze hovering above the eye-patch, and he felt a sudden urge to see what was behind that smooth patch that kept his eye hidden from view, but after a moment, he resisted the temptation.

 

Looking up and around the empty street and garden, he tried to figure out just what had happened. He felt the teen beneath him squirm slightly, a groan escaping those delectable lips. Sebastian returned his attention to the bluenette and patted his soft cheek lightly.

“Are you okay?”

 

Ciel didn’t answer, his blue eye staring up at Sebastian, looking terribly empty.

 

“Hey. Ciel, anyone in there?” He jokingly tapped Ciel’s temple and smiled. Ciel did not smile back.

 

“I…-ed…nng.” Ciel coughed and tried his best to remind his vocal chords how they worked, but they refused to co-operate. He stared at the kind face above him, feeling the warm hand that was stroking his cheek.

 

“Try again Ciel, what happened? Are you injured? Does it hurt anywhere?” He gently grasped Ciel’s upper arm and helped him sit up.

 

“I …-lled Aahn…” Ciel furrowed his brows and coughed again, clearing his voice a bit. Then his eyes spilled over with sudden tears and he managed to croak, “I…killed…Ann-”

 

The smiling face was replaced by shock, disbelief and then horror. “…what?” Sebastian dropped him, sprung to his feet and bolted inside. Ann was lying face-down and still on the cold tiles of the kitchen floor. Sebastian slowly backed away, his foot hitting the discarded frying-pan with a clanking noise. He couldn’t stay there any longer; his stomach clenched and the whole scene made him feel sick.

 

He quickly returned outside to Ciel, who was sitting upright, hands in his lap and tears streaming down his cheeks. Taking a deep breath, he slumped down on the lawn next to Ciel.

 

Sebastian stared out into the distance. “We should probably call an ambulance, you know.”

 

The bluenette didn’t answer. His lithe form was still racking with sobs. “It-it was an accident-…I-I didn’t really mean to-to…”

 

Sebastian reached out, pulling the teen towards him, into a half-embrace. “I know...”

 

“You-you’re right,” Ciel pushed himself up to his feet with a little assistance from Sebastian, “c-call an ambulance-”

                                                                                             

“CIEEEEEEEEEEL!” Ann’s furious roar was heard moments before she suddenly came stumbling out through the wide open door, her mouth twisted into a deformed smile that would make even the most cold-hearted demons ashamed. Saliva dribbled messily down her chin as she screamed at her nephew and she leaned heavily on the doorpost, clutching the side of her head with one hand, the other keeping a tight grip on the greasy pan Ciel had used.

 

Sebastian felt Ciel stiffen beside him. She was still alive. He grabbed the teen’s shoulder, “Ciel, I think we should leave…She sounds…murderous.” He tugged at Ciel’s shirt, making him back away bit by bit, as if Ann was a wild animal with cubs who had been disturbed.

 

The teen stumbled into Sebastian’s chest as he brought his shaking hands up to his face to swipe away any evidence of tears. “S-sebastian? Wh-what’s goin’ on?”

 

“Let’s get out of here…okay?” Sebastian started walking towards the gates of the fence with his gaze trained on Ann, who was slowly starting to move towards them, swinging the pan in her hand, her feet swaying. “Ciel? _Move_!” He pulled the bluenette just out of reach as Ann swung the heavy pan towards him, missing him with barely an inch. Sebastian grabbed his hand and dragged him out on the street, half running towards his car, pulling the dazed teen behind him.

 

Ann stopped, eventually, just outside of the gates. Swinging the frying-pan above her head, she yelled in a hoarse voice, “I’m gonna fucking KILL YOU WHEN YOU COME BACK, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

 

Sebastian opened the passenger door and shoved the unresisting Ciel inside, without looking back at Ann who was swaying slightly where she stood, supporting herself on the old fence.

 

“That woman is _insane_!” Sebastian quickly seated himself in the driver’s seat and shook his head furiously. As he turned the ignition, he shot a glance to Ciel. “What happened, Ciel?”

 

Ciel flinched when he was spoken to, but quickly recovered as the car started moving away from Ann. “I-um…she-she teased me. And-and I…lost it. You know…like, I didn’t know what I was doing…”

 

Sebastian nodded, and stayed silent, focusing on his driving. Ciel slumped in his seat, cradling his head in his hands. “What am I going to doooo? She’s going to kill me, Sebastian!”

 

“No, she’s not.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his determination could be heard through every word, “Because before she hurts you any more, she’ll have to walk over my dead body first.” He silently stared blankly ahead, as if afraid to watch the bluenette’s reaction.  


Ciel slowly raised his head from his hands, turning slowly to stare at the man beside him.

“You…are you serious?”

 

Sebastian flashed him a quick smile, “Of course.”

 

\---

 

The rest of the ride was kept in a comfortable silence. When they arrived at Sebastian’s Manor, Ciel noticed a small paper box in the back seat as he climbed out of the car.

 

“What’s that?” He asked as Sebastian carried the box to the front door, pointing to the photograph that was partially hidden between all his office things.

 

Sebastian put down the box and fiddled with the keys as he spoke, “Why don’t you take a look?”

 

Ciel picked it up as Sebastian pushed the door open. A faint scent of lemon cleaning agent hit their nostrils as they walked inside. Ciel studied the photo closely. “Is…that you?”

 

“Yep. Me and my brother on my graduation day.” He smiled, “That’s why we’re wearing matching suits. And smiling.”

 

Ciel chuckled and noted, “You two look pretty happy here. It’s a nice photo.”

 

“Yeah, well… it was taken only two weeks before our mother died, so…” Sebastian trailed off a moment, then he continued, “That’s the last time we met and we still got along.”

 

The teen looked up, “I’m sorry.”

 

“Don’t be.” Sebastian dropped the box on top of the others in the hallway. “What do you say, should we get rid of these today?” He tapped the closest box and smiled towards the teen.

 

\---

Ciel opened his fifth, and last, cardboard box. They had been discussing _Angels and Demons_ as they unpacked the previous things from Sebastian’s old flat. But now they had been working in silence for a while, only speaking occasionally.  
  
Ciel emptied the box of books and even more books, but this time he also pulled out a violin case. He held it up and shot Sebastian a surprised look. “Sebastian! Do you play the violin?”

 

Sebastian’s head appeared from out of a half emptied box, and smiled when he saw what Ciel had found. “Well, no. It was a gift from a relative or something when I was a kid.” He stretched a bit and sighed, “I couldn’t learn. Too stupid I guess. Kept it nice and shiny though, since it was a gift. Not that I’ll ever bother to learn now.” He chuckled to himself and returned to his box.

 

Ciel slid his fingers over the smooth velvet-covered case and carefully clicked the locks open. The shiny, polished wood that met his eye made him relive his memories of his father, teaching him how to hold it properly against his chin, how to let the bow slide just right, and, how to make the violin _sing_.

 

His pale fingers trembled when he picked it up, allowed his gaze to slide over it and fiddled with the strings a moment, making sure it was properly tuned before tucked it neatly beneath his chin. He didn’t notice that Sebastian had stopped unpacking and was looking attentively at him. His fingers slipped around the bow, resting it gently against the strings. He closed his sapphire eye and just played.

 

Teasing tunes, slowly dragged out of the instrument without effort, as if he had never stopped playing all those years ago. They swiped throughout the room, flexing and rising, falling and intensifying, slowing down time until it was no longer moving, the two of them frozen in time and space, clinging to the tunes that flowed from beneath the bluenette’s fingers-

 

And the spell was broken; Ciel opened his eye and lowered the violin. Sebastian was staring at him. Ciel hurriedly tucked the instrument back into its case and opened his mouth to apologize, when Sebastian started clapping.  
  
Blushing feverishly, he muttered out a quiet, rather affectionate “Shut-up.”

 

Sebastian stopped applauding and took three short steps towards the young man and the violin, to rest his hand on the case to keep him from closing it. “How long have you been playing?”

 

Ciel was keeping his gaze fixed on the floor, “This…was the first time since the accident.”

 

Sebastian immediately knew what particular accident he was referring to, and just said, “You haven’t played in almost seven years, and when you pick it up again, it sounds as if you never stopped.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Amazing.”

 

Feeling his face heat up, the younger silently muttered, “Um…thanks.”

 

Sebastian looked at the violin. “If you ever wish to play again, it will always be my honour to lend it to you.” Ciel nodded, still slightly pink in his cheeks.

 

Sebastian returned his attention to the box he’d almost emptied, standing lonely in the middle of the hallway. “As soon as we’re finished here, we’ll take a look at your bedroom.”

 

Ciel stopped, head half-way down the box, “What bedroom?”

Sebastian chuckled, “Well, as much as I’d like it, you’re not sleeping in my bed.” ‘ _…-yet_ ’ he thought and allowed a seductive smirk dance on his lips.

 

Sebastian’s sultry velvet voice made Ciel blush beet red all the way up his ears this time. He said nothing, he just dumped the last book on the pile of books Sebastian had made and disposed of the cardboard box instead.

 

A few moments later, when also Sebastian was finished, he helped the older man to carry the books to the library where they put them wherever they fitted. Ciel couldn’t help but to feel excited that Sebastian wanted him to stay, and that he did not have to go back to his dreadful aunt, at least not tonight. Lost in thought, he accidentally walked into Sebastian’s back.

 

“Oh, sorry-”

 

“We’re going upstairs here, Ciel.” Sebastian just said, sweeping an arm out towards the staircase and made a small bow.  


Ciel stared at him a moment, then he laughed, “Hey, _you’re_ the Lord, not me!”

 

Sebastian pouted slightly, “You promised not to call me that.”

 

Ciel started climbing the stairs, “Okay. I won’t.”

 

“I forgive you.” Smiling, Sebastian followed him, as the young man snickered at his reply.

 

“So, anyway, why did you decide to give me a bedroom here?”

 

The taller male’s response was immediate, “Because if you’re here, your aunt can’t hurt you.”

 

Ciel felt his heart warm up at the thought of someone actually caring for him, caring if he got hurt or not. ‘ _Oh, what the hell…I have to tell him the truth, I can’t let him figure it out by himself…I have to tell him why I_ -’

 

Sebastian interrupted his thoughts when he gently nudged the younger man in the small of his back to change direction at the top of the stairs.

 

When they stopped outside a door made out of thick dark wood, Sebastian unlocked it and smiled rather impishly at the other. Ciel merely waited until Sebastian opened the door, and was amazed at the look of the room hidden behind it.

 

Walls painted pale blue with patterns in gold distracted Ciel’s eye a moment before he saw the large king-sized bed with deep blue silk covers that was placed in the middle of the room. There was a loveseat at the end of the bed, as well as a large wardrobe to his right. There were matching night stands in dark ebony accompanying the bed, and the afternoon sun shone in from a window across the room.

 

Sebastian shifted his weight between his feet, still standing by the door, “Do you like it?”

 

Ciel felt stunned, to think that this room was to be considered _his_ …“It’s…amazing-”

 

“To be honest, I’ve just dusted it and changed the sheets, because I thought you might like the original colour?”

 

“I love it!” Ciel walked into the bedroom, examining every part of it, finally stopping at the antique loveseat, also royal blue, with detailed embroidery made with golden thread. After watching it for a while, he sat down with a sudden sigh. “I’ve got to…to tell you something, Sebastian.”

 

“What? What’s wrong?” Sebastian asked, genuine concern evident in his voice.

 

Ciel just patted the seat next to him. Sebastian obediently sat down next to him.

“You see…the… _reason_ I hit my aunt…was because-” he paused for a moment. “She taunted me until I snapped, and she knows exactly how to do that. By r-reminding me what my b-best friend’s… _stepfather_ did.”

 

 

Sebastian stayed silent, hands folded in his lap, listening to the trembling teen. “She said-she said…that it was my own fault that-that-” a shivering breath made its way down his lungs, he closed his lonely eye tightly as he blurted out, “that-that I got raped.”

 


	10. Kisses, Couches and Murder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian deals with Ciel's secret.   
> They also have a nice movie-night~

Chapter Ten

“Kisses, Couches and Murder”

 

Sebastian’s mind screeched to a halt as if he had hit an imaginary brick wall and he just stared at the bluenette. “What?” The word that slipped past his lips was merely a croak, so he cleared his throat, which had mysteriously clogged up in a matter of seconds, before he blinked and swallowed hard. ‘ _No bloody wonder he’s shied away from any kind of bodily contact…_ ’ He felt his rage burning deep inside of him, but he decided to lock it away. For now.

“How old were you…when…?” He swallowed again, his throat still too tight.

 

Ciel didn’t look up to face the other. His hair fell around his face, obscuring his features as he kept staring at his hands in his lap. He didn’t want to see the look of disgust on that beautiful face next to him. If he looked up and saw it, he knew he would break. “I-…I was twelve.” When Sebastian didn’t say anything in return, he quickly added, “And he’s dead now. Died of a heart attack four or five months after…after the incident.”

 

Sebastian still said nothing. Instead, he moved ever so slowly closer to the young man, reaching out to touch his hands, but retreated when Ciel flinched at the simple contact.

He kept his gaze on Ciel and said slowly, “Ciel…You _do_ understand that…it’s not your fault. It’s _not_ your fault. Never feel that it was your fault.” Ciel made no move to prove that he had heard Sebastian’s words. So he placed his forefinger beneath the younger’s chin, gingerly making him look up. “Are you okay?”

 

Ciel stared at the concerned face, his mind muddled with thoughts about Sebastian, about the rape, about Alois and the hateful day he had been invited to his home. He blinked when the touch of the finger disappeared. “I…I need to tell you the whole story. How…I mean, why, it happened.”

 

“Ciel, it happened because a perverted old man forced himself onto you, it has nothing to do with what you did or didn’t do.”

 

“Yeah it does! Because if …if I hadn’t- if I hadn’t…”

 

“It’s not your fault.” Sebastian reached out for him, this time he grabbed the shaking teen and pressed him hard to his chest as he kept whispering, “Not your fault.”

 

Ciel buried his face into the warmth of Sebastian’s neck; he kept blinking, forcing himself to focus on the opposite wall, where he studied the intricate patterns painted in gold. The velvet voice of Sebastian nestled itself into his consciousness once more, stating that it would never happen again, not as long as he was there to protect him. The bluenette simply nodded into the raven’s neck, leaned away from his protective embrace and started telling his story with a wavering voice that grew steadier the more he talked.

 

Everything had started when Ciel had been invited over to the Trancy Mansion, the home of a wealthy family with an impressive history. Of course, Ciel had been excited to see the place where his classmate Alois lived. After all, he was the most popular guy in the whole school; it was a true honour if you were invited to see his home.

 

When Ciel had arrived, he was greeted by a family butler who took care of his coat and bag, all while Alois giggled and danced around on the spot, eager to show him around. It had been wonderful, seeing all those rooms and hiding places as they ran around playing hide-and-seek.

 

Then, Alois’ step-father had appeared at the top of the stairs, telling Alois to bring his new friend to the dining hall for some tea. Alois had reluctantly agreed and they had both been seated around a small table in the enormous room. Ciel had been offered a cup from Mr Trancy and had politely accepted, sipping and giggling with Alois while he dangled his legs over the edge on the high chair.

 

It was only when he had received his second cup he had started to feel drowsy. He had slipped off the chair and asked to borrow the phone to call his aunt to pick him up, but he fell after a few steps. He remembered Alois screaming something to his step-father, and then he had somehow ended up in a bedroom, Alois long gone, alone with Mr Trancy, unable to move due to the drugs in the tea. Large, calloused hands had roamed over his childish body, making him want to scream, but unable to do so, even when it became clear that the man did not stop merely at touching him.

 

His mind had sealed itself and the next thing he could remember was a white room, machines beeping, pain and the nerve-racking sound of his aunt sobbing next to him. The weeks that followed were horrible, filled with gossip, newspaper articles that Ann tried to keep to a minimum and friends at school who whispered behind his back about a mysterious attack.

 

But worst of all was when Alois himself had laughingly claimed that he’d deserved it, backed up by his cohort of older students. They laughed, but they didn’t even know what they were talking about. Ann had successfully kept the media away from any details about the assault, so the newspaper’s headlines had only read that a ‘poor boy had been attacked by an old man’. No further details.

 

As times passed, Ciel grew older and finally understood exactly what had happened to him. And he had suppressed the memories, locking them away in a small box in his mind, throwing the key away. Until now.

 

When Ciel had finally stopped talking, his mouth felt drier than a sticky note left in the sun. The lack of speech left an eerie silence in the room. He had just spilled his darkest and most dreaded nightmares. Now he feared that Sebastian would refuse to believe him, or worse, laugh at him. He felt his shoulder slump. He would miss the hugging and laughing that had been with Sebastian.

 

“Ciel?”

His head snapped up at the sound of Sebastian’s voice. “Yeah?” He could feel his heartbeat pulsating through his head, and it caused him a mild head ache. Sebastian was still sitting close to him, but they weren’t touching each other.

 

“You’re not going back to your aunt.” Sebastian stated, rising from the settee, standing with his back to Ciel.

 

The younger man blinked. “What? What are you talking about?”

 

“Tomorrow, we are going to go to your old home, pick up all the things you need and then you’re staying here, is that clear?”

 

“…really?” Ciel’s face broke up into a wide smile.

 

Sebastian turned towards him, a sad look on his face, “You deserve to be happy Ciel. Do what you feel is best, and I will do my best to help you.”

 

Ciel smiled, but then he said with a disgruntled look on his face, “I will have to go back to her, eventually, you know.”

 

Sebastian nodded, “I know. But for now…you’re more than welcome here.”

 

Ciel looked at the older man, whose face was showing just how horrible he felt at the thought of the assault, and said, “Thank you, for believing me. And for letting me stay here.”

 

“Of course.” For the shortest of moments, it looked like Sebastian was going to tell him something, but as soon as it was there it was gone again.

 

“Sebastian?”

“Mm?”

Ciel hesitated a moment, but then he blurted out, “I’d trust you with my life.”

 

A truly sceptical look settled in Sebastian’s burgundy eyes as he swept his eyes over the young man’s lithe body. He shook his head and smirked, “You truly trust me that much?”

 

“Yeah. I honestly feel safe here.” Ciel sighed. “You know what, don’t ask why, because I don’t know why myself.” He stared at Sebastian’s jaw line as he spoke, “I just do.”   


Sebastian kept looking at the bluenette with a sudden interest, and he licked his lips slowly as he mumbled beneath his breath, “Well, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 

Ciel didn’t say anything; he merely kept his small distance to Sebastian, his cheeks on fire, afraid to make the tiniest move. He could almost touch the tension in the air as they both stared at each other. He rose from the small couch and took three short steps towards Sebastian and wrapped his arms around his middle.

 

Baffled, Sebastian was found with a sobbing teen in his arms. When he had gathered his senses, he silently slipped his arms around the trembling teen and pulled him towards him, into his warm embrace. He felt the young man release a shuddering breath and relax against his chest.

 

“What...the hell, I never cry. Never-” Ciel hiccupped into the soft fabric of Sebastian’s shirt.

Sebastian smirked as he tipped his head and buried his nose into the teen’s soft hair, “Well, it’s about time to let it all out then, don’t you think?”

Ciel let out a small broken laugh, “Heh, yeah. Maybe.”

 

Sebastian couldn’t help but to hold him a little tighter and rested his chin in the ruffled bluish hair as he spoke. “Listen, you’re safe here. I won’t let anyone touch you any more.”

 

Ciel kept silent once more, kept his eye closed and secretly relished in the warmth that radiated from Sebastian’s body. He frantically tried to stop hiccupping without success, so he looked up at Sebastian and managed to blurt out, “Now look what I-I did. I’ve spread snot all-all over your nice new s-shirt-”

 

Sebastian burst out laughing.

\--------

 

**Friday, September 19 th, 08.02 AM**

 

‘ _Beep-beep-beep!_ ’

 

Ciel smacked the alarm clock down onto the floor, as he half-conscious tried to turn the damn thing off. Blinking, he tried to recognize his surroundings. Feeling his heart drop to somewhere below his knees, he slowly woke up enough to remember that he was staying at aunt Ann’s today. He tossed the black blanket off himself and it slid down on the floor.

 

‘ _Why did I convince Sebastian that I could stay at home today…I could’ve been having breakfast with him by now…_ ’

 

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, sighing, because he knew that he felt bad about living in Sebastian’s house; he didn’t like having to depend on him that much. As soon as that thought crossed his mind, another followed suit, ‘ _Though it’s much nicer there, than being here, with Ann…_ ’.

 

Since Ciel had more or less moved in with Sebastian during these last two months, his aunt had tried to butter up to him several times, just to get him back into the house. What for, Ciel did not know, it wasn’t as if she wanted to spend time with him anyway. At least she had never threatened or hit him again since Ciel had hit her back.

 

Mostly he did not agree to stay. The first night he had stayed, she had begged him to stay at least a couple of nights, but Ciel had refused. He agreed to return every now and then on the condition that she tried to keep her hands off the bottles, and that Sebastian was to sleep with one hand on the phone, just in case.

 

He didn’t want her to do something stupid, after all. He quickly decided that aunt Ann could handle herself for the remainder of the day and the rest of the month. Stifling a yawn, he made a mental note to phone Sebastian as soon as he got off from school.

 

Grabbing his clothes, he yawned and tried to dress in a hurry, having pressed the snooze-button far too many times to have any time to dawdle. He ran past a sleeping Ann in the kitchen, made a quick sandwich and ran back upstairs to get his forgotten bag, all while as she was still snoring on the kitchen table, an empty bottle of tequila beside her.

 

He stopped at the door and threw a glance over his shoulder. ‘ _She’s going to kill herself with that stuff_ …’ Shaking his head, he walked outside and locked the front door.   


Bag in hand, eating the small sandwich, running and tying his black school tie at the same time, the blue haired teen hurried towards school a few blocks away. Arriving at eight thirty on the dot, he skid into the correct classroom and-

 

Lau, the all time popular guy with typically newly rich parents yelled, “Heey guys! Look who’s finally here! It’s Pansy-Hive!”

 

The class exploded with laughter and as Ciel tried to ignore them and walk quietly to his desk, someone kicked the back of his knees, making him crash to the floor, scattering his things everywhere.

 

Someone laughed, “What’s the matter, _freak_? Can’t stand up can you? Or is it because you so gay you just love being on all fours?!”

  
More laughter. A foot, close to his face, kicked away his notebook and crushed one of his pencils as he crawled around and tried to retrieve his things. Another foot hit the back of his head and barely missed his fingers on its way to the floor.

 

When the door slammed open, making the door creak on its hinges, everyone became suddenly quiet and seated. As the teacher marched inside with his nose high in the air, Ciel was finally able gather his belongings and rush to his seat. Last of them all.   


The strangely white-haired teacher glared at Ciel as he dumped a pile of papers on his desk, “Last one to find your seat again, Mr. Phantomhive?”

Ciel stared silently at the surface of his own desk. “I’m sorry, Sir.”

 

Staring at his student, he spoke in a slow, malicious voice, “You _do_ understand that if you cannot be seated like every one else when I arrive, I must be forced to take action against your rebellious behaviour? You’re disrupting… _my lesson_.” The last two words were hissed out between clenched teeth.

 

A few stray giggles were heard in the small pause after the teacher’s cold words.

 

Ciel glared back at the teacher as he said, “Yes, _Sir_ , I understand.”

 

“Very well.” He returned his attention to the rest of the class with a sudden bright smile, “Good morning everyone! I hope you’ve all studied well for today’s little test!”

 

A few moments later, the teacher was swirling across the room, handing out the examinations.

 

What seemed to be a large stack of paper was dumped on the bluenette’s desk with a soundly ‘thump’ and Ciel glowered at the teacher as he walked between desks. Gritting his teeth, he thought, ‘ _Just shut up, you bloody idiot. You don’t know a thing of what’s goin’ on in this class when your back’s turned…_ ’

 

Sighing, he returned to stare at the pile of papers in front of him. ‘ _I hate math_.’ He flicked the first page over, revealing four new ones beneath the first. Page up, page down with numbers, equations and silly questions whether Jack got more siblings than Jill. Or was it apples? There was even print on both sides, making the test eight pages long, not counting the last one, which only had two words; ‘ _Good Luck’_.

 

Ciel groaned. ‘ _This doesn’t make any sense…_ ’ Staring blindly onto his blank answering sheet, he suddenly realizes he’s forgotten everything Sebastian taught him last night. He glances towards the clock on the wall and his stomach begins to ache. ‘ _I’m screwed_.’ Starting to sweat, he flips through all the pages in a sort of frenzy, his hands trembling, on the hunt for at least _one_ problem he might be able to solve, but there is none.

 

He looks up, scans the room. It is quiet, except for the scribbling of pens. Every single person in the room is bent over their desks, writing as fast as they can. The bluenette quickly notices that Mr Ash is watching him intently, smiling a crooked, nasty smile. Ciel glares back before he returns to his test, boiling in anger, at the teacher, at the test, at the school, well, _everything_ , except Sebastian.

 

After taking a few calm breaths, he finally recalls Sebastian explaining the technique behind the solution of the equations he’s supposed to be working on. Feeling slightly better, he finally starts to write down some answers.

\---

 

When the clock strikes ten, the tests are collected and Ciel manages to escape the classroom without being further harassed. Successfully answering thirty-seven out of forty questions, he feels quite proud of himself. It might be the first math test that he’s handed in which contains more than four correct answers. Steering clear of his so-called ‘mates’, he makes it to the next classroom without any unfortunate ‘accidents’.

 

Leaning against the opposite wall of the classroom door, he pulled out his phone and texted a quick ‘ _I think I did it_ ’ to Sebastian. He smiled and pressed the send-button. Right when he’s about to put his phone back in his pocket, he felt a hand viciously grab his butt.

 

“Helloooo Cieeeeel!” The blue-haired teen stumbled upon the sudden attack, crashing into the lockers in the wall and almost shrieked, before he realized exactly who it was that had sadistically clutched his behind and screamed in his ear.

 

“Alois.” Ciel’s voice was not threatening, but it wasn’t particularly kind either. Perhaps ‘cool indifference’ was the phrase for it. “What do you want?”

 

The fair-haired teen blocked his way, standing in front of him and smiling a sickly sweet smile that did not quite match his features. “Whaaaat? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

 

Ciel sighed. “Just go away.” He pushed Alois’ arms out of the way, and took a few steps away from him, slipping his phone back into his pocket.   


Alois proceeded to pout and placed his hands on his hips. “Don’t be such a bore, cutie, everyone knows you’re bent already! There’s really no point in hiding it, love.”

 

Ciel locked eyes with the grey tiles in the floor. “Shut up.”

 

“Ooooh~” Alois purred, “Are you trying to hit on me…” he stepped closer to Ciel and whispered, with a dangerous glint in his eyes, “... _again_?”   


When Ciel flipped his head up to declare that he most certainly was not hitting on him, that he had never done that in the first place, Alois took his chance and kissed his cheek with a disgusting wet noise. Ciel snapped and slapped him across his face. Hard enough to leave an angry red mark.

 

Alois only response was a slight giggle, before he grabbed Ciel forcefully around his thin throat and slammed him up against the brick wall. “Listen carefully, _Pet_. You don’t have a say in anything that’s going on in this school. If I wanna feel up your arse, you’re not the person to tell me _no_ , okay? If you do…” he chuckled, “well, I’d be veeery careful about that pretty eye of yours…After all, you only got _one_ left.” Alois smiled, let go of him and giggled as he trotted away down the hall, swinging his hips.

 

Ciel glared at the screaming purple coat that sauntered away. He wiped off his cheek with his sleeve, a look of disgust evident on his face. Satisfied he had rubbed away any germs Alois might have left on him, he massaged his aching throat a little. When the teacher arrived, about ten minutes earlier than usual, he quickly got into the classroom to avoid any trouble. At least he could relax in history class. The Indian Professor Agni was always kind to him and he liked the subject.

 

As Ciel plopped down on a seat in the furthest corner of the room, to make sure no one attacked him from behind, he saw Finnian bolt into the classroom, a wild look on his face.

 

He inwardly groaned when he realized Finnian was heading straight for the empty seat next to him. Sure, he was probably the only one in the whole school that actually talked to him on a daily basis, but that didn’t make him any less annoying.

 

“Hey, Phantomhive!”

Ciel watched the other sit down rather clumsily on the chair before he replied, “Yeah? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a giant roach or something…”

 

Catching his breath, Finnian cleared his throat and whispered, “You know what! That guy in that movie I told you about last week, he got busted with, like, a ton of drugs-”

 

“So what? You _know_ I didn’t even like that movie. I don’t give a rat’s ass if he gets busted or not.”

 

“But, how can you say that! He’s, I mean, _seriously_ , he’s famous!”

 

Ciel stared at the large glittering eyes of his classmate. He sighed. “Wow. Finnian… _I don’t care_. If you want to talk about silly rumours, please, be my guest, but don’t try to get me interested, okay?”

 

Finnian stared at him wordlessly a moment, then he blurted, “Alright, only because _your_ only interest is that imaginaryfriend ‘Sebastian’!”

 

“ _What did you just say_?” Ciel turned slowly in his seat to glare at Finnian, who seemed to shrink in his seat beneath his gaze.

 

“Um, well…You know…All you ever talk about is this _Sebastian_ guy…I just, I mean, no-one’s really met him right? I just sort of said what every one else says behind your back. Look, I’m sorry, okay?”

 

“Oh. Alright.” Ciel relaxed. He knew how terrible a liar Finnian was. He wanted his attention, so attention he’d get. “Okaay…So if he’s really imaginary, why don’t I just call Sebastian then? To check what he’s doing.” Ciel fished out his phone and dangled it tauntingly in front of Finnian. “I’ll let you talk to him, if you _dare_ speak to a being of my imagination?”

 

The blond shifted nervously in his seat. “Well, um…”

Ciel didn’t reply, he just dialled the number.

 

After only two seconds, Sebastian answered. “Hello? Somethin’ wrong Ciel?”

 

Ciel fired off a triumphant smile towards Finnian and said, “Hi, well, not really, but a mate here thought you were a freak of my imagination. Finnian, to be precise.”

 

Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief, “Um…Okay? Why?”

“I dunno, he says some-”

 

Sebastian heard the other student interrupt Ciel by suddenly grabbing the phone and whisper, “Okay, okay! I lied, but only because I thought you were just trying to be cool or something!”

 

Ciel’s outburst of laughter was heard, “What the-? Finn, you’re crazy! Gimme back my phone so I can speak to my non-existing _imaginaaary_ -”

 

“S-shut it! Stop Ciel- No, no I don’t want to talk to him!”

 

“I think he’s already heard you, Finn-”

 

More bustling and scuffling, before the voices in the phone had returned to one, namely Ciel.

 

Sebastian caught the chance and said in a very sultry voice, “Aw, are you two boys fighting over little old me?” Ciel felt his own ears blushing, and muttered a low “Stop-it-you’re-embarrassing-me” to a chuckling Sebastian in the other end, before he cleared his throat and became suddenly serious. “Enough of that crap now, how did your test go?”

 

Ciel cracked up in a smile, “Well enough. I think I might actually make it this time!”

 

“Great! I’m proud of y-”

 

“Oh, shut up…Come and pick me up later, will you?” He tried to cool down his still blushing ears by fanning them with his hand as discretely as possible.

 

“Well, of course. Just text me before you leave and I’ll be there.”

 

“Will do.” Ciel lingered on the phone. He loved hearing the soft breaths on the other line, but the moment was broken when Sebastian replied a heartbeat later.

 

“I’ll see you in a few hours then…Bye.”

 

“See yah.” Ciel smirked towards Finnian, who just stared into a very intriguing book…which he held up-side-down.

 

\---

‘ _I’ll be outside in ten_.’ Ciel pressed ‘send’ and returned to his textbook. The class should be dismissed any second, now…

 

When the teacher stood from his desk and reminded them of their assignment, Ciel felt his phone buzz slightly in his jeans pocket. As he shoved his books into his bag, he opened the message. It just said three words: ‘ _On my way_.’

 

As Ciel tried to stay out of the way of the other students, he still didn’t manage to not being pushed hard into the locker doors in the corridor or having nasty names shouted after him.

 

Doing his best to hurry, he half ran outside, keeping an eye and an ear out for a black muscle car. When he didn’t see it, he decided he might as well wait outside, so he sat down on a small bench by the bus stop, not far from the school building itself.

 

After less than half a minute, Ciel tried to blend in with the wood in the bench as Lau and his gang appeared on the side of the road. They were talking rather loud, laughing and smoking as they came closer.

 

He pulled his hood over his head, bending his neck to avoid watching them. Sometimes, it was better to try to be small and insignificant, because this time, they walked right past him. This was, in fact, quite odd. Usually, they’d look for him just try to pick a fight, making Ciel so pissed off that he tried to beat them up, which never ended well due to the fact that Lau had a whole gang with him and Ciel was always alone. He watched them as they crossed the street further down the road and disappeared between a few houses.

 

Finally having some time alone to think in peace, Ciel thought of the time he’d spent with Sebastian lately. The more he thought about it, the more he came to the conclusion that they had become closer as friends. Then it hit him, they had become _physically_ closer as well.

 

Now that he actually thought about it, Sebastian would walk past him on his way to the kitchen and ‘accidentally’ bump into his shoulder, or when he handed Ciel his tea, he’d allow his fingers to linger a moment longer against Ciel’s as he took the cup. It must have come creeping up on him; these things didn’t happen over a night. He smiled absently for a moment, as he recalled the hugging in the library…

 

The soft rumble of a V8-engine reached the bluenette’s ears and he jumped up from the bench, all previous thoughts discarded as ‘ _impossible_ ’, as soon Sebastian pulled over and popped the door open for him.

 

When he got in, Sebastian smiled at him and said, “Long time no see, _my Lord_.”

 

“Tch, shut up. You drove me home just yesterday, remember?”

 

“Yes I do. Buckle up now, I’ve waited the whole night and almost all day today to see you again, I really don’t want you dead in a car crash.” He winked, and Ciel grimaced. Sebastian ignored the face and started heading home. “So anyway, how was your aunt then?”

 

Ciel sighed, “Well, she wasn’t…really talkative… yesterday.”

 

“Was she drunk?”

 

“I don’t think so. She just looked at me and didn’t say anything. I think she was quite drunk this morning though. I mean, she was asleep next to an empty bottle…”

 

“Hm. So, it sounds like she’s been nicer than usual. About that, where are you staying toni-”

 

“With you.”

 

Sebastian chuckled, “Easy now, you might sound desperate if you’re not careful.”

When Ciel didn’t answer, Sebastian shot him a quick sideway glance, “Hey…you ok?”

 

“Yeah.” He fumbled with the straps on his schoolbag, keeping his hands distracted.

 

“Did something happen at school?” Sebastian hit the brakes, making the two of them fly against their seatbelts, the tyres screeching to a halt at a sudden red light.

 

“Well…sort of. Alois kissed me.”

 

There was a tense silence for a short moment, while the words that had slipped from the young man’s lips seemed to float thickly trough the air towards Sebastian.

 

The taller man grabbed the bluenette’s tie with a strong hand and yanked Ciel’s face closer to his own, barely half an inch from his lips, staring at him, his mouth decorated with a scowl. “Where?!”

 

Ciel stuttered, flustered, “I-um, j-just my cheek, but-”

 

Sebastian looked like he wanted to erase any traces of said kiss by placing one there himself, but instead he kept looking at Ciel and growled, “I am going to _kill_ that bastard.”

 

He let go of the young man’s tie with a shaking hand and returned his attention to the empty street where the light had now turned a bright green. He hit the accelerator too hard, making the car jerk violently into action, pressing its passengers firmly into the seats. “I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t like when others are touching-I mean, hurting you.” He sighed.

 

“It’s okay.” Ciel thought for a moment. “I think…I sort of like it.” He smiled, “It’s weird to see you still being so possessive, now when you can do and buy whatever you want.”

 

Sebastian kept his eyes firmly on the road. Then he muttered, “I can’t buy a new _you_.”

 

Ciel stared at him for a moment, then he turned to stare at his hands. ‘ _What…was that? Did he just… did he just admit he_ likes _me likes me? Does…Sebastian…does he really like me?_ ’ He kept his hands busy with the straps on his bag once more.

 

The remainder of the ride was silent, since both men were engaged in the art of mulling facts over until nothing made sense any longer. Especially not their relationship.

 

\---

By the time they arrived at Sebastian’s manor, Ciel had decided that it was nigh on impossible, that anyone that treaded the earth could possibly _fancy_ him, a word that made him shudder, even if he was only thinking it. The thought of Sebastian, however, made him feel quite prone to blushing instead.

 

He walked after Sebastian in a daze, following him inside and into the kitchen. He barely noticed that the other was talking, but it seemed he couldn’t quite understand what he said. In the end, Sebastian pushed him down in a chair and gave him a cup of tea. When their fingers brushed each other lightly, Ciel came back to his senses. He saw Sebastian staring at him, as if expecting an answer. Ciel cleared his throat, “Um, could you take that again? I didn’t-”

 

“-listen, no, I noticed that.” Sebastian seated himself across the table, “How are you feeling?”

 

Ciel stared into his tea, “M’just tired.”

 

“Really?”

 

“…yeah.”

 

“Ciel, listen, I know there’s something troubling you… _please_ tell me?”

 

The bluenette seemed to think things over carefully before he sighed deeply, “Yeah, alright.” He took a quick sip from the sweet tea and continued, “It’s Alois. He just won’t leave me alone, and he makes sure others won’t leave me alone either. And…today he implied that I was hitting on him.”

 

Sebastian seemed much occupied with staring at his hands as he asked, “Were you?”

The young man’s eye widened in horror, “No! Of course not!”

 

“Alright, I just wondered…I’m sorry.”

 

Ciel sighed. “Okay, so anyway, he knows I was sort of in love with him years ago, and he keeps bringing it up, to make fun of me and-”

 

“You… _loved_ him?” The jealousy that dripped from the words could not quite be contained in his velvet voice, and Sebastian kept looking at Ciel, to watch his reactions.

 

“No…not really. It was more like a stupid childhood crush. Or maybe I was just curious about the whole…gay-thing? I dunno. We were very good friends until…that thing ruined everything.”

 

Sebastian tapped his fingers on the table. “Does he know..? About that… _thing_ with his stepfather?”

 

“No. He just knows what the papers wrote. Which is virtually to nothing. You and Ann are the only living people who know the whole story, except for me.”

 

“Good. You know you can talk to me about it anytime, right?”

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” Ciel returned to his now cool tea, sipping it whilst looking at Sebastian’s body through his eyelashes. ‘ _He’s so cute when he’s worried…wait what?_ ’

 

He blushed to the tips of his ears and refused to answer why, when Sebastian pointed it out to him.

 

 

\---

**08:43 PM**

 

Ciel’s head felt heavy. Almost like a headache but not really a headache. He leaned his head back against back of the couch in the large (gigantic) living room. As he lazily swapped between boring TV-soap operas, Sebastian walked into the room.

 

The tall man yawned and stretched his arms above his head. “Hey. Anything good on?”

 

“Nope.” Ciel turned his head around to watch him approach. “You’ve got some paint on your nose.”

 

“Hm?” Sebastian brushed his hand over his face, only to smear the colour out over his cheek.

 

Ciel chuckled at the sight. “Great. Keep that up and you can become the next Hulk.”

 

Sebastian groaned as he saw the all the green paint on his palm. “Oh, what the…Seriously… I’ll be right back.”

 

Ciel returned to staring at the flat screen on the opposite wall, zapping between channels. He gave up, closed his eye and pressed a random number combination on the remote. The chosen channel was running a documentary about the cleverness of ravens. Ciel groaned, but he kept watching the same program until he heard the foot-steps of ‘no-longer-green-on-the-face-Sebastian’ return, and he asked, still facing the flat-screen, “How did you _not_ notice all that paint when you looked in the mirror?”

 

“I just washed my hands, I never thought of having any paint on my face.” He stood behind the couch, right behind Ciel’s head, with a hand on the green blanket that was folded over the backrest and glanced at the television. “What the hell are you watching?”

 

The birds on the screen cawed and ripped open a bag on a snowmobile to get the cookies the camera crew had stored there.

 

“Um…A bird documentary?” Ciel giggled at Sebastian’s dumbfounded face.

 

Sebastian looked from Ciel to the screen and then back again. “Okaaay…Wanna watch a movie instead?”

 

“Oh GOD yes.” The younger earned a pat on the head as Sebastian left to get a movie.

 

Sebastian soon returned with a small mountain of DVD’s in his arms. “Pick something.”

 

Ciel smiled at the pile, “You’re not streaming the movies?”

 

“No, it never works for me. Just stops playing halfway through and I never get to see the ending.”

 

Ciel grinned and started rummaging through the large heap of DVD’s. “Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.” His fingers stopped on a simple black cover with the headlights of a car staring right at him beneath slightly swirled letters that read ‘Christine’. Ciel frowned, “What’s this?”

 

Sebastian couldn’t quite contain his surprise that Ciel had not heard of it. After all, it’s a classic. So, he simply took the movie from the bluenette’s hands and said, “Well, it’s a movie based on a Stephen King novel. To be short, it’s about a murderous car.”

 

Ciel nodded absentmindedly and took a quick look at the rest of the movies, but eventually, he settled for ‘Christine’ anyway. “Let’s watch that one then.” He pointed to Sebastian’s hand, which was still holding the DVD, and stacked the rejected movies in a neat pile down on the floor beside the couch, whilst the taller man fed the television the disc.

 

Sebastian returned to the couch and threw himself down with a pleased sigh. The distance to the younger man was carefully kept; Sebastian did not to want to make him feel uncomfortable.

 

As the screen was filled with pitch black darkness, Sebastian made sure the room was dark too, with a handy little remote-controlled curtain that kept all daylight out, especially designed for movie-nights. He stole a glance at Ciel and pressed ‘play’.

 

Ciel sank deeper into the couch in the cosy darkness that followed. Names of actors swirled past the screen accompanied by the sound of a roaring engine and Sebastian said, “I hope you’ll like it.”

 

Ciel silently nodded and watched the screen. Only three minutes into the movie, Ciel realized that this was no ordinary ‘car-movie’ so to speak. A minute later, the first victim by the car was found and Ciel felt a chill creep up his spine.

 

Less then an hour later, Ciel had decided that he could use the ‘horror-movie’-excuse as to why he crept closer to the older man, pulling up his legs beneath himself and leaning against Sebastian’s shoulder. He made sure he was staring at the screen when the other glanced at him.

 

Sebastian had lost his concentration on the movie quite early on, he was more fascinated by the blue haired beauty he had next to him, and besides, it was more fun to watch Ciel’s reactions. He made a fleeting look at the younger man and smirked to himself.

 

Glancing every now and then at the younger, Sebastian strategically placed his right arm on the backrest of the couch, right behind Ciel’s head. The next time he noticed the younger press himself closer to him, he slid it down and rested it on the teen’s shoulders. To his surprise, Ciel scooted even nearer and leaned his head on Sebastian’s shoulder.

 

As Sebastian was chuckling slightly to himself, Ciel’s heart and mind were racing. Not because of the movie, no, the root of the problem was the fact that Sebastian had slipped his arm around his shoulders. His mind battled between the dislike of being touched, and the fact that it was _Sebastian_ touching him which he did not dislike at all. Quite the contrary, since he had been moving closer and closer to the large man next to him, he had been filled with a warm feeling of happiness. He found out early on that he very much liked this almost-snuggle-position he had ended up in. He could hardly keep the grin off his face.

 

When the screen turned black and the credits had begun to roll, Sebastian sighed and tried to reach the remote on the coffee table, without having to push Ciel aside too much. But as the bluenette handed him the remote, he whispered “No, again”, when Sebastian was about to turn the TV off.

 

Sebastian frowned, “You want to watch it another round?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Sebastian smiled at him and obeyed. After a while though, he asked, “Any particular reason why?”

 

Ciel grinned to himself and cuddled his face into Sebastian’s shoulder, “I don’t want to get up.”

 

Sebastian felt his heart swell in his chest as he hugged the young man to his chest. ‘ _I don’t want to ever let you go, Ciel…Damn it all, I don’t care that you’re young, just…_ ’ He stopped thinking; instead he leaned his head down and kissed the top of the teen’s head.

 

\---

 

When the end credits rolled a second time, Sebastian didn’t move to get up. He waited until the movie ended completely and then he just sat there in the silent darkness. Ciel had fallen asleep in his arms. He did not want to be anywhere else in the world. He shuffled down lower on the couch, half lying down, with a lightly snoring Ciel draped over his chest.

 

He yawned and blinked lazily in the dark. Ciel shivered slightly in his embrace, so Sebastian reached for the blanket on the backrest and draped it over both of them, tucking Ciel in where he lay.

 

He couldn’t help himself, his fingers moved on their own accord and soon they found themselves tangled in that mop of bluish hair, stroking the strands and lingering at his neck.

 

Ciel hummed contentedly in his sleep. Sebastian stared at the barely visible face and hugged him closer, kissed both his cheeks, since he wasn’t sure of which one had been soiled by another, before finally drifting off to sleep himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is considerably longer than the others because I felt I couldn't split anything that happened in this chapter.   
> Fun-Fact-Trivia, It's 6 666 words long... (Fourteen pages)


	11. Art and Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel steals clothes from Sebastian and they realize that maybe pot-noodles weren't such a good idea after all.

Chapter Eleven

“Art and Dreams”

As Ciel slowly started to wake up, he felt something warm moving in his hair and down his neck, tickling him a little. When he made a small sighing noise, the movement stopped and Ciel’s tired brain registered that feeling of warmth as a hand on top of his head.

 

He blinked his eye open, foolishly fought a yawn which made his face look cramped up, as he tried to look at Sebastian, whom he was lying on top of. ‘ _Wait, what?_ ’ His searching eye was caught by a mischievous pair of eyes and a small smirk.

 

“Sebastian?” He slurred sleepily, realizing exactly the situation at hand and blushed before he could look away from the piercing look of Sebastian’s deep red eyes.

 

The fingers belonging to the hand that rested on top of his messy hair moved around in slow circles and distracted him a moment until Sebastian replied,

“Yes… _my lord?_ ”

 

Ciel swatted his hand above his head, hoping to hit that mocking face. He failed, naturally, because Sebastian caught his wrist barely an inch from his nose.

 

“I’ve told you, _don’t call me that_.” He growled, and tried to yank his hand free. He stopped when he felt something warm and wet drag all over his palm. He practically felt his blood rush to his ears in embarrassment.

 

“Hm? Don’t call you _what_ , exactly?” Sebastian whispered and pressed his lips against Ciel’s palm, sucking slightly.

 

Ciel shivered as he felt Sebastian’s free arm wrap around his middle even tighter, making it difficult for him to move. “M-my _Lord_. My name is Ciel, you butt-”

 

“Hush.” One simple word whispered by those lips and Ciel fell silent immediately.

 

Sebastian stopped licking the delectable palm and started to pull the younger up closer to his face instead. When he was satisfied, he wrapped both arms around his prey and begun to ruffle the untidy hair in Ciel’s neck with his nose. Blowing an occasional warm puff onto the sensitive skin of the bluenette’s throat, he chuckled as he heard the other’s breaths growing shallow.

 

Making the action complete with a warm kiss on the middle of the young man’s neck, he revelled in hearing him utter a muffled moan. Grinning from ear to ear, he started suckling and licking that thin neck as Ciel obediently leaned his head aside to make it easier for Sebastian to reach.

 

As Ciel kept his eye closed, feeling rather embarrassed about the whole ordeal, even if it was amazing, he heard Sebastian say his name.

 

“Ciel…”

The young man kept his eyelid closed and only grunted as an answer.

 

“Cieel…hey, wake up!”

 

His eye darting open, he realizes that he’s lying on his stomach on the couch and hugging a pillow. Sebastian is standing above him, nudging his shoulder whilst looking all smile and sunshine. “Good morning, sleepy head. Don’t even _think_ you can sleep through having breakfast with me!” Sebastian beamed at him.

 

Ciel still gaped slightly, and stared at the man with his impeccable obsidian hair, perfectly brushed and tucked behind his ears, except for a lonely strand that fell in front of his burgundy eyes as Ciel watched. He wondered how bad his own hair looked. As he drew a hand through his messy locks he felt the memories from the dream resurface and he blushed to the top of his ears.

 

Disappointed that the lovely moment they had shared had only been a dream, he rubbed his face with his hands and grumbled; “Breakfast?”

 

He decided to ignore the disturbing flush of heat covering his face and stood from the couch, keeping his hands busy folding the blanket and his face hidden from Sebastian’s eyes.  

 

“Yeah, breakfast. I baked some bread yesterday so I’m making sandwiches with tea…Is everything okay? Do you want something else?”

 

“No, that’s fine. Um, I mean it’s better than fine, it’s-” he stopped himself when Sebastian chuckled and shook his head before he walked back to the kitchen. Ciel yelled after him, “I think I’ll go shower first though!”

 

Sebastian’s voice reached him from the kitchen, “Okay!”  


\---

Stepping out of the shower, he wrapped a large white towel around his lithe body. Standing on the tiled floor as a small pool of water formed beneath his feet, he wondered what the hell he was going to wear. Since the clothes he’d slept in was sort of smelly, he didn’t want to put them back on, yet he wasn’t going to waltz around naked…even if he trusted Sebastian with his life, he _had_ noticed the looks the taller male had given him occasionally.

 

He wrapped the fluffy towel more securely around his body, to make sure it stayed there when he walked. He didn’t want to stand butt naked if he would run into the other man. Not only because of obvious reasons, well, no-one wants to expose themselves involuntarily, no, because he’d probably die of embarrassment if he let Sebastian see the scars on his back.

 

Shaking his head clear of any thoughts about Sebastian and simultaneously spraying the walls with droplets of water, he snatched his eye patch and decided to see if he had any clothes left in the drawer in his bedroom since last time.

 

He opened the door and peeked his head out. No Sebastian there. The last thing he wanted right now was to be caught with a towel around himself. No doubt that Sebastian would find it hilarious.

 

Slipping out of the bathroom, he moved quickly and quietly in the long hallway. Luckily for Ciel, the bedrooms were situated on the same floor as the bathroom, so at least he wouldn’t have to sneak downstairs, risking to be seen. One hand on the towel and the other yanking the door handle, he snuck into his own room.

 

After a few futile minutes of searching through his room, the only clothing he found was undergarments and socks. He had rummaged through every drawer, but all his clothes were gone. His whole wardrobe was empty.

 

He sighed at the mess the large pile of socks made on the floor, and he noticed the thin wet trail he had left behind himself when he walked inside. He angrily stuffed the pile of socks into a single drawer, leaving one pair that he slipped on, along with some fresh underwear. He stood in the middle of the room, still holding on tight on the towel, thinking hard. ‘ _What the hell am I going to do now? I’m not putting those sweaty things back on…hang on…_ ’

 

A small smirk spread across his face as a plan formed itself in his mind. He peeked out into the corridor again. ‘ _The coast is clear, proceed, private Phantomhive!_ ’ he snickered to himself as he was heading down the hall-

 

“Cieeel!” Sebastian’s voice reached upstairs into his ears, and the bluenette froze, heart somewhere between his tonsils.

 

Ciel cleared his throat as he leaned against the wall, “Uh-Yeah?”

“Hurry up! Or you’ll have cold tea!”

 

Footsteps heading towards the stairs made Ciel’s skin prickle and he quickly yelled, “I’ll be there in a minute!” He held his breath, and the steps returned to the kitchen.

 

The bluenette quickly tip-toed to Sebastian’s bedroom door that was visible from the bottom of the stairs and slipped inside, hopefully unnoticed.

 

Letting out a shaky breath, Ciel leaned against the door as his eye swept across the room in search of a wardrobe. He’d only been in Sebastian’s room once before. He allowed himself a moment to savour all the details of the room, when he saw it. ‘ _Bingo._ ’

 

Ciel’s eye caught sight of a door to his right, opposite of the large bed with inviting black silk covers-

 

A stray thought entered Ciel’s mind, ‘ _with a bed that looks that comfy, and probably is even more comfy in reality, why does he even bother to get up every morning?_ ’

 

Shaking the thought out of his head, Ciel approached the wardrobe and reached out a hand and opened it. He hurriedly grabbed a plain white button down shirt, a simple grey v-neck sweater and he rummaged around for a while before he found a pair of black sweatpants that seemed that they might fit if he folded them by the ankles.

 

‘ _Now we’re talking…_ ’ Ciel dropped the towel and started dressing himself. It turned out that the shirt was quite a bit too large, so he stuffed it down the sweatpants and rolled the sleeves up a bit. When he pulled the sweater on, which was also quite large, you couldn’t really tell that the shirt was too big, or, at least that’s what Ciel thought.

 

Ciel took a quick look in the mirror on the inside of the wardrobe door and frowned a little. ‘ _I look so small it’s ridiculous…_ ’ He grabbed the towel from the floor and rubbed his still wet hair with it, before he was satisfied and opened the door to leave. As he closed it behind him, and turned around, he ended up face to face with Sebastian, sporting a rather amused smile.   


“Hello there Ciel.”

“…hello.”

“I must say I am somewhat surprised to find you on your way out of my bedroom, when you said you were showering?”

 

“Uh…I- I did take a shower, but all my clothes are gone. I just went to see if I could…perhaps borrow some of yours?” He made an awkward gesture towards the closed door behind him as his voice trailed off and he cradled the damp towel to his chest.

 

Sebastian leaned forwards, as if to inspect if Ciel was lying or not, when he grabbed his collar, making Ciel squeak. Not uttering a word, he calmly buttoned down the collar and made sure it was properly folded against Ciel’s skin, ignoring the teen’s attempts to duck away.

 

Keeping a large hand curled around the younger man’s neck, he pulled him closer and smiled, “ When I drove you back to your aunt’s place, I decided to wash all the clothes you had in your wardrobe here, to make sure they were clean when you came back. They’re in the washroom.”

 

Sebastian watched the young man nod and continued. “Now, if you wanted to borrow clothes, why didn’t you just ask me?”

 

“…I don’t know.” Feeling rather breathless for being so close to Sebastian, Ciel jolted when the other made a sudden move towards him. Sebastian stopped mid-movement and opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he seemingly changed his mind, and tugged gently on the teen’s borrowed clothes to make him accompany him downstairs.

 

\---

 

When they had finally finished a very late breakfast, that would more appropriately be called a lunch, they both treaded up the stairs to the second floor of the manor, and then the third and highest. Ciel had kept asking about what Sebastian had been painting, and so, Sebastian had decided that maybe Ciel would like to see it in person.

 

As Sebastian led the way to his studio through a broad corridor, Ciel couldn’t stop thinking about that dream. It had felt so _very_ real. Watching the back of the man in front of him, he couldn’t help himself imagining that Sebastian would suddenly stop, spin around and pin him to the wall, kissing the life out of him. ‘ _Well, that’s not very likely to happen_ …’ he thought glumly and watched his own feet as he walked.   
  
Ciel flinched when Sebastian suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face him. Sebastian opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again when he saw Ciel’s expression as he was staring wide-eyed at him, almost as if he was stuck in a particular severe case of déjà vu. “Um…Ciel? What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing. Nope. All’s good.” He cleared his throat a little.

 

“Right. So through this door-” Sebastian cocked his head towards the door in question, “-is my room where I paint. It’s messy, so please watch your step. Okay?”

 

“Sure. I’ll just follow you then.”

 

Taking a deep breath, Sebastian pushed the door open and stepped inside. Ciel followed his steps, like he’d promised. He soon forgot that promise when he saw what Sebastian had meant by ‘ _messy_ ’. There where canvases and paint everywhere. Tubes of acrylics littered the antique oak floor, some leaving stains either because Sebastian had forgotten to close them, or he had accidentally stepped upon them, leaving large, splattered areas of various colours.   
  
The painter himself had walked his way through the room to sit at his unfinished painting by the window, where he had an excellent view over the manor’s grounds. He silently watched Ciel, peeking over the edge of the currently covered canvas, as the young man explored his most treasured room with a look of astonishment evident on his face.

 

Ciel’s blue eye swept over the room, he saw portraits painted so vividly they could have been photographs, large canvases covered with motifs from exotic jungles that seemed to be alive, and as Ciel carefully stepped over an open box of various artists’ brushes, he noticed a quite big painting, this one also covered with a sheet. He only took two steps with an out-stretched hand towards it, and was immediately stopped by Sebastian’s words.

 

“Please don’t touch that one. It’s not quite finished yet.”

“Oh, all right.” Ciel gave the mystery painting one last curious look and turned around to look at other works.

 

“Come here, Ciel. I want you to see this.” Sebastian hadn’t moved from his stool, but he was looking at the young man and beckoned him closer with a ‘come-hither’-motion of his index finger.

 

Ciel started trying to find his way to Sebastian without stepping in paint, and when he arrived at the large window, the older man had pulled out a small stool for him too. Ciel sat down, next to Sebastian, who was lifting up yet another covered canvas into the easel after first having carefully removed the earlier one. Sebastian threw a quick glance at Ciel and then he uncovered the painting in one swift motion.   
  
Ciel stared at the portrait. Sebastian swallowed nervously.

 

They both gazed at a life-sized portrait of a blond man with messy hair, his blue eyes screwed up as if he was facing an unrelenting sun. The big grin decorating the face had an unlit cigarette dangling in the corner of his mouth, making the smile sort of lopsided. Ciel was the first to speak, after a while of strained silence.   


He pointed to the portrait in front of them and asked, “Um…Who is he?”

Sebastian was slumping in his stool, resting his chin in his hands, looking at the painting in its thin frame, “His name was Bardroy, but we just called him ‘Bard’.”

 

Ciel raised an eyebrow, “We?”

 

Sebastian nodded and continued, “Yeah, he was my mate in school. He lived almost next door to me and Claude when we were kids. We were friends for a long time.”

 

Ciel was quiet for a moment, then he softly whispered, “You said ‘was’…what happened?”

 

Sebastian sat up straight, turned his head towards Ciel and promptly uttered, “He died.”

 

A moment of flat silence passed, and as Ciel made no comment, Sebastian continued, “He was killed in a drunk-driver accident when he was seventeen. He had gone out to buy me a birthday gift.” Sighing, he said, “I still feel guilty about that.”   
  
Ciel turned his eye back to the smiling man on the portrait, feeling a strange throb of jealousy, even if the man was already dead. “Why was he-”

 

Sebastian cleared his throat and cut him off quickly, “We were a couple, Ciel.”

 

“Oh.” Ciel bit his tongue. “I see.” The dread that filled his gut felt as if it travelled with his bloodstream to make sure that his whole being drowned in the resentful emotions he felt.

 

Sebastian closed his eyes and sighed again. Pinching the bridge of his nose, as if to stop an oncoming headache, he said, “I painted his portrait in a fury when I got the news of his death…I never even got to say goodbye. It’s already been over five years since…” his voice faded away, the unsaid words hanging unspoken in the air, piercing the strained silence between them. Sebastian looked up at the ceiling.

 

Ciel stared at an uninhabited cobweb in the corner of the windowsill. As Sebastian spoke, he felt the jealousy wash away, only to be replaced with guilt and shame in the pit of his stomach. He scooted closer to Sebastian, well, as much as he could, since the both of them were on separate chairs. “…I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I dare say I know how it feels to lose someone-”

 

The older man quietly pressed his index finger to the younger’s lips, shook his head and allowed the finger to travel just beneath Ciel’s eye patch, caressing the pale exposed skin, “There’s nothing that can be done to make the past undone, right? I think we both have learned that the hard way.”

  
Ciel agreed silently by nodding his head into Sebastian’s palm. He felt proud of himself that he had made that move himself, but was also feeling a little uncomfortable at the same time; he still wasn’t quite used to being touched.

 

‘ _Still’_ , his mind argued, ‘ _this is Sebastian, he’s a nice guy, you know that_ … _better than nice actually_. _’_

 

His eye seemed to be glued to Sebastian’s feverish stare. Ciel felt the heat climb up his face, making him sweat and feel quite embarrassed about the whole thing.

 

Sebastian chuckled, as he shook his head once more, his deep burgundy eyes showing nothing less than pure desire; “Bloody hell, you’re so beautiful.”

 

Ciel cursed beneath his breath and looked away to hide his face.

 

The painter wouldn’t have any of it; he reached out to hold the young man’s reddened face in his two large hands, and crept closer until the tip of his nose was resting against Ciel’s forehead. The younger screwed his eye tightly shut and raised a hand as if to push Sebastian away, but the movement faltered halfway and his hand fell to his lap.

 

Sebastian, still caressing Ciel’s face, suddenly brushed his lips against the forehead in front of him.

 

The teen didn’t move. He was breathing shallowly, like he had been doing in that dream. ‘ _That dream_ ,’ his mind once piecing things together, ‘ _could become your future_ …’ His heart was beating like it was a race to see how fast it could beat before it burst out of his chest.

 

Sebastian waited for Ciel to open his eye, that evading cerulean blue eye, with its thick black lashes, hiding in safety behind its lid. “Look at me, Ciel.”, he whispered.

 

The warm tuft of air that accompanied the soft spoken words made Ciel look up for a moment.

 

Sebastian, pleased to finally see that stunning eye, waited no longer to capture the young man’s slightly surprised, open lips in a warm kiss.

 

Paralyzed, Ciel didn’t dare move; his head not able to form any coherent thought long enough to register anything. It was wonderful for several heartbeats, to be trapped in between Sebastian’s large, warm hands and soft lips, until a long lost and forgotten memory resurfaced in Ciel’s brain.

 

‘ _Careless, sloppy wet kisses pressed to his thin throat. Rough lips closed against his own, bruising him, forcing him to breathe in the older man’s breath so foul it smelled of old tobacco and sweat. Hairy, calloused hands groping his pale thighs, forcing them apart_ -’

 

Ciel’s mind ran into a screeching halt, he ripped his head away from the once delightful kiss that had turned into a nightmare in his mind, pushed away from Sebastian’s chest with such force that he lost his balance and fell, arms flailing, backwards over his stool and made head-first contact with the hard oak floor with a sickening loud thump.

 

Sebastian stumbled to his feet in pure panic, and tried to kneel beside the groggy teen so fast his knees hit the floor at a bruising speed.

 

“Ciel! Ciel, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

 

Ciel held up a hand to stop the other from talking and also telling him he was okay by the simple gesture. As Sebastian freaked out, the bluenette struggled to sit up, his legs tangled in the toppled over stool. Groaning, as he held a hand to his bruised skull, he grabbed hold of Sebastian’s shirt, and the sudden frightened look in his lonely eye made Sebastian stutter and then become silent.

 

“Ciel? Ciel, say something.” Sebastian carefully slipped his arms around the bluenette’s thin waist, afraid that the younger might loose it again and push him away.

 

Ciel did not struggle against the hold Sebastian offered, he leaned into the older male, panting slightly as he relived parts of his past. Parts that he thought was suppressed and forgotten. A shaky breath later, he found himself relaxing into Sebastian’s arms. Finally feeling the other’s warmth and security, Ciel spoke in a broken whisper, “I remember now-” he swallowed, “I can remember it.”

 

Sebastian tightened his grip a little before he replied, “You remember?”

 

The younger nodded his head vigorously, “Yes, about… _you know_.”

 

“About what happened with Alois’ step-father?”

 

“Yes. Not all of it, but…some of it.” Ciel sighed.

 

“I triggered a bad memory by kissing you?” Sebastian frowned, “Am I that terrible at kissing?”  
  
Ciel actually giggled first, but then he became more serious, “No, no, you’re amazing.”

 

After a moment of rubbing small soothing circles on Ciel’s back, that the younger would later refuse to admit he had enjoyed, Sebastian said, “Alright, come on. Get up now.”

 

Ciel glanced at him over his shoulder, “Why?”

 

He pointed to his legs, “Because my feet have fallen asleep.”

 

Ciel started laughing, “You old man!”

 

“Hey! I’m not old! You’re sitting on me!”

 

“What, are you calling me fat?” The bluenette sounded playfully indignant.

 

Sebastian sighed, “No, of course not. Now get up, or I’ll carry you.”

 

Ciel did not move one inch, instead he narrowed his eye, “I don’t believe you.”  
  
The shriek (Put-Me-Down-This-Instant!) that echoed throughout the manor proved that Sebastian did indeed hold true to his threat.   


\---

 

Eating instant pot-noodles in front of the TV had seemed like a good idea when they had come up with it, now it became quite clear that it wasn’t. Ciel placed his half-eaten portion next to Sebastian’s on the coffee table.   
  
Sebastian caught Ciel’s eye and said, “One word; Yikes.”

 

The younger grimaced, “You didn’t like them either?”

 

“I can’t ever remember them tasting quite that badly, you know. And I’ve eaten my fair share of pot-noodles.”

 

Ciel chuckled, then he stretched out on the sofa and leaned his head in Sebastian’s lap. “Well, at least the company’s nice.”

 

Sebastian lost interest in the program they’d watched an opted for looking at Ciel’s face instead. His long fingers intertwined themselves into the bluish hair that was splayed across his thighs. After thinking it through several times, Sebastian finally asked, “Can I see your eye?”   
Ciel’s eye blinked open. “What? You’ve already seen it.”

The older man’s expression of determination did not falter, “No, I mean the _other_ one.”

 

The bluenette swallowed. “Why? Why do you want to scar your mind with something as ugly as that?” He rolled to his side, staring at the coffee-table instead of Sebastian.

 

“Because I want to see your whole face,” was the simple reply.

 

Ciel kept eye-contact with the table. Thinking things over, he knew he was being unreasonable and sort of stubborn. He slowly returned to lie on his back, looking up at Sebastian. “O-okay then.” He stared at the man above him, “But don’t blame me, when you’ve seen this-this _thing_ -” he pointed vaguely in the direction of his right eye, “-and you can never again stop seeing it!”

 

Sebastian waited until Ciel had lowered his hands and calmed down a little, before his nimble hands undid the knot in the back of the young man’s head. Ciel shivered slightly as the black silk slid off his face and exposed him to the outside world. He was careful to keep both his eyes closed.

 

Sebastian’s feather-light touch roamed over the jagged scar across the closed eyelid, from the top of his cheekbone to his eyebrow it went, a pale white reminder of a devastating accident best forgotten. A moment later, Sebastian whispered, “Let me see your face, Ciel.”   


A pair of mismatched eyes fluttered open, one bright and deep blue, the other dull and with a milky-white sheen to it. Ciel swallowed nervously and slid his eyes shut again. He heard Sebastian sigh, and was taken aback when he felt the paint-stained fingers trace the scars over his mangled eye.

 

“You’re still beautiful.” Sebastian smiled, as Ciel’s cheeks reddened, “And you’re mine, right?”

 

Ciel’s eyes shot open and his breath hitched as he quickly sat up and stared at Sebastian. “Hwhat?”

 

“I really like you.” Sebastian blinked at him, then he kissed his forehead, carefully avoiding the younger’s lips.


	12. In Sickness and In Health

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel is sick. Sebastian makes sure the cute young man doesn't go hungry.

Chapter Twelve

“In Sickness and In Health”  


Sunday, September 21st, 09:23 am.

 

Ciel clutched the fabric of his borrowed nightshirt with one hand and covered his mouth with the other. The occasional coughs turned worse, until his chest felt compressed and only tiny gasps of air managed to creep into his lungs between attacks.

 

He felt cold sweat trickle down the side of his face. Holding his breath, he screwed his eyes shut hard, making the skin around his eyes crinkle up. Where the hell was Sebastian anyway? He tried to breathe in for a second time, but it tickled his lungs so much, he started coughing all over again.

 

As Sebastian burst in through the bedroom door, holding a bottle and a glass of water, Ciel looked up. The older man noticed how very fragile he seemed to be, and the fact that he was sitting up in that large double bed made him look even smaller than he was.

 

Sebastian kneeled at his bed and handed him the glass as he placed the bottle on the night stand. When Ciel had managed to down about half the glass of water, Sebastian leaned forwards and placed his palm gently on the younger’s forehead. He bit his lower lip in concern. The young man was warm, too warm.

 

He withdrew his hand and asked in a casual manner, “How are you feeling?”

 

Ciel glared at him, “How do you think?” His voice was hoarse after all the coughing.

 

“Not well?” Ciel drank some more of the water and managed to repress another cough.

 

“Good guess,” he croaked.

 

Sebastian handed him a small tin filled with pills, “Listen, Ciel, take two of these, they will help you get the fever down a little.”

  
Ciel grabbed the tin, took out two pills and downed them instantly with a large gulp of water. “-tastes disgusting.”  
  
Sebastian sighed and closed his eyes. “It’s medicine, Ciel, what did you expect?” He took the small box of pills and slid them into his trouser pocket with another sigh.

 

Ciel kept looking at him, a rather intense look on his face, “What?”

 

The older cracked an eye open to look at him, “What do you mean ‘what’?”

 

The young man sighed, “I mean, _what are you thinking about_?”

 

Sebastian’s face suddenly cracked up in a smile and he leant over the bed. His hands were supporting his weight on the bed, inches from Ciel’s own right hand. He stopped, only half an inch from Ciel’s ear and whispered with a hot breath, “I bet it was that kiss that caused this.”   


Ciel blushed crimson, “Wh-what? You’re not sick, are you?”   


The younger could almost hear the other’s words drip with jealousy when Sebastian spoke again, “I meant the _other_ kiss. The one Alois gave you.”   


Ciel paled at the thought. That he would have caught some kind of germ off of that disgusting creep- ‘ _Yuck_ ’ …his thought was cut short in an intense shudder of repulsion.

 

Sebastian hadn’t stopped talking though; his sweet low voice was still caressing Ciel’s ear with that hot breath,

 

“-I bet it was just swarming with microbes, just waiting to make you all hot and bothered-”  


Ciel felt his ears warm up, too. He twined his fingers in the bedcovers, looking down at his fingers, trying to hide his blush. “Shut up-”

 

Sebastian chuckled a little, “Do I make you uncomfortable, Ciel?”

 

The younger didn’t really know what to answer to that. He opted for the most true answer, “…No. Not really.”

 

Sebastian smiled, “Good. Then this won’t be too much to ask now, will it?”

 

Ciel wondered what he’d meant, but then Sebastian stood up and kicked off his shoes. Ciel furrowed his brows. ‘ _What’s he up to_?’

 

The older man’s motives, however, became very clear when Sebastian pulled down the covers and quickly slipped in beside Ciel.   
  
”W-what do you think you’re _doing_!” Ciel grabbed the cover and pulled it up to his chest, cradling it close to himself.   
  
Sebastian merely smiled and snaked an arm around Ciel’s warm shoulders. “Listen-”

 

“Get out of my bed!” Ciel’s voice turned a pitch higher than usual, making his sore throat ache and he tried to squirm away from the older man, but the arm held him tight and made that option impossible, so he opted for turning his head away from the raven.

 

“-you have a fever, Ciel.” The young man pressed half-way to his chest made no sign as if he’d heard him. A sigh slipped between his teeth, “I just want you to feel safe, okay?” Sebastian removed his arm from the teen. “Better?”   
  
Ciel felt his lungs tickle again, so he spoke carefully, “Sebastian…I don’t feel well. I’m too hot, everything’s too hot.” A slight cough escaped his lips, “I…I _do_ want you here, but-” he nibbled on the inside of his cheek, trying to think of an answer that didn’t sound quite as cheesy as the one he had in mind. “-I don’t want you to become sick as well.”   
  
Sebastian actually laughed at that, a short amused chuckle, as he retuned both his arms around his young man, pulling him into his lap, and whispered, “It would be my honour to be sick with you, Ciel.”   
  
The bluenette did not protest against the embrace, but rather the content of his words, and so he retorted, “If you’re sick, then who’s going to make me dinner?”   
  
Sebastian shook his head in amusement. “Do not worry yourself, my _Lord_.”   
“I’ve _told_ you, don’t-” the younger’s words were cut off in a violent surge of coughs, which only ended after Sebastian had grabbed his chin and forced some water down his throat.

 

Spluttering, Ciel gasped, then he wheezed in a deep breath and leaned back against Sebastian’s chest. The feeling of those arms circling around him was quite nice, actually. Not that he’d ever admit that out loud…

 

Feeling a thin trail of sweat make its way down his cheek, he raised a weak hand to wipe it away. Sebastian moved behind him, shuffling both of them lower into the bed, wrapping his arms around the younger’s middle a bit tighter, a bit more possessive. Ciel suddenly froze.

 

At first he didn’t understand why, himself. They’d fallen asleep like this on the couch, after all. He really had liked that, and he liked this, too. Then his hands started shaking as Sebastian’s close proximity became painfully clear exactly _what_ it reminded him of. He shuddered as a rather vivid memory of himself, being held down on a bed came to mind.

 

He clenched his eye shut, hard, trying to force the bad memories away. ‘ _No, no, not now!_ ’ Images he’d rather make sure stayed forgotten swirled past his inner eye, making him scream inside his head, unable to utter a single word for help.

 

Ciel suddenly shuddered and he moved to sit up straighter, leaning slightly away from the older man. The images were gone, just as sudden as they had appeared. He blinked, a bit surprised himself. Shuddering again, he realized he was feeling cold.

 

“Ciel? What’s wrong? Do you need a bucket?”

 

The younger man wordlessly shook his head as he swallowed loudly. “I’m fine.”   


Sebastian, sensing something was wrong, sat up straighter while his hands were shifting to the younger’s shoulders instead. The small body in front of him released a shaky breath and slumped a little where he sat.

“Ciel… You do know…I would never force you to do anything, right?”

 

The bluenette just nodded his head jerkily, making his hair fall into his single visible eye and he silently willed his brain to shut up.

 

“Okay.” Sebastian squeezed the shoulders in front of him, gently massaging them. “Please, try to relax. You need to sleep.”

 

Ciel groaned. Then he started to truly appreciate the tender touch, leaning into it. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I-I know you’d never hurt me, I just…had a flashback, that’s all.”

 

Sebastian kept moving his hands over the younger’s back, silently massaging the tense muscles. “Hmm…” Sebastian stroked his fingers lightly across the nape of Ciel’s neck.

 

The young man winced and drew in a sharp breath, “Ah…Sebastian, that tickles.”

 

A soft velvet voice caressed his ears, “Does it now?” Sebastian leant forward, pressing his lips to that exact spot. The reaction was most delightful as Ciel gasped and grabbed the blanket, leaning his head to the side to give Sebastian access to more of his neck.

 

The low chuckle that teased his ears only sought to make Ciel feel warmer again, making the fever pale in comparison as his face heated up.

 

One of Sebastian’s hands travelled to the front of his young man’s shirt, slowly undoing a button while he never neglected that sensitive part of Ciel’s neck, laving it with kisses.

 

He nipped the skin lightly with his teeth as he slipped his hand inside Ciel’s shirt, placing it gently against his stomach. He smiled as he felt the muscles move with every breath from the young man.

 

Ciel sucked in another sharp breath when Sebastian licked his way all over that exposed flesh, his feverish breathing seemed to become more and more erratic as Sebastian’s fingers simultaneously moved across his ribs in a teasing motion.

 

Sebastian stopped his ministrations, either that, or Ciel would die of a fever peak, which he may or may not be the cause of. Clearing his throat, he retracted his hand and drew back a little.

“I’m sorry; you’re supposed to be resting…I shouldn’t have-”

 

Ciel snorted a strangled laugh, “That’s…the first thing you say…after you kiss the life out of my neck?”

 

Sebastian wrapped his arms around his young man again, this time the only memory that was stirred in Ciel’s mind included lingering kisses, making him blush once more.

 

“It’s the truth.” He seemed to think for a moment, as he absentmindedly pulled his fingers through the younger’s hair, “If I could, I would let you rest in my bed.”

 

Ciel sighed at the pleasant touch, “Yeah? And why can’t I do that?”  


Sebastian’s voice darkened with what could only be unkempt desire, “Because I would not be able to restrain myself.” A tense moment passed, and then he sighed, his voice slightly more normal, “It would be really nice though, to have your scent lingering in between the sheets of my bed…”

 

“Shut up.” The bluenette fought his furious blush as Sebastian snickered.

 

“I’ll just go and make you some soup, okay?” The older man disentangled himself from the blankets and covers, gently moving Ciel aside to let him fall back on the soft pillows. “Don’t go anywhere, will you?”  


Ciel laughed weakly, “Soup sounds nice.” Then he shook his head as to answer the next question, “Why should I? I’m being spoiled rotten right where I am now.”

 

Sebastian brought his hand up to his chest, bowed deeply and said in a serious tone, “Your wish is my command, _my Lord_.”

 

Quickly ducking for a pillow flying his way, Sebastian chuckled as left the room and made his way downstairs to the kitchen.

 

\---

 

Sunday, September 21st, 10.13 AM.

 

Flaming red hair bounced in the light breeze as Grell Sutcliffe made his way through the gate at the rickety old house that was supposedly the home of the blue-eyed brat. When banging his fists on the front door didn’t seem to rouse anyone to answer, he started screaming instead.

 

“Get your ugly arse out here! Don’t think you can steal him from _me_ , you FUCKING BRAT!”

 

Grell raised his fist to pound on the door once more, but stopped midway when the door swung up.

 

“Keep your _bloody voice down_..!”

 

The hissing voice came from the shadows behind the door. Grell arched an eyebrow when the voice obviously didn’t belong to the ‘ _brat_ ’ in question and cleared his throat a little. A wide smile spread across his face, sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight as he put on his most favourable face.

 

“Pardon me, Madam, but could you please tell me the whereabouts of a … _mister-_ ” he spat the word, “-Phantomhive?”

 

The woman in the shadows peeked her head out a little, but she kept a hand up to shield her sensitive eyes from the bright light. “Vincent’s been dead for a long time…”

 

Grell screamed inwardly at the stupid woman, if he was dead then wasn’t it obvious whom he meant? He laughed a short, cold laugh. “Oh, I meant the _younger_ mister Phantomhive…?”

 

The woman retracted to the shadows, but then her voice was heard from further inside the house. “Dunno where he stays these days.”

 

A clinking, shuffling sound then, perhaps some bottles being moved? Then, “Well are ya gonna stay there all day, or are ye coming in or what?” Grell smiled to himself and stepped past the threshold.

 

 

Sunday, September 21st, 10.27 AM

 

Occupied with stirring in a large pot of soup on the stove, Sebastian himself was deeply concentrated on his task. Adding a pinch of salt, he smirked as he recalled the feel of that smooth stomach beneath his hands.

 

Ah, the things he would do to that young man…His cock twitched a little at the thought. He stopped stirring, forcing his mind to think of something else, but it was no use. Ciel had moved into his head permanently, it seemed.

 

As his mind wandered off to the teen in the upstairs bedroom, he measured ingredients and cut vegetables with almost eerie perfection and skill. The flawlessness one only receives when one has practically grown up in a kitchen.

 

He reached for the garlic, but stopped when he had grabbed it. He narrowed his eyes and looked at it. ‘ _He’ll get better faster, but his breath will smell horrible…_ ’

 

Sebastian took a moment to think, weighing the options against each other, then he slowly lowered the garlic back on the table. ‘ _Ginger, that will have to do. Perhaps some chilli, as well?_ ’ He moved around in the kitchen adding a few dried leaves of chopped basil as he passed the stove on the way to fetch the chilli powder and some fresh ginger.

 

When he was finally finished, he was quite proud of his work. A single green leaf was placed right on top of the steaming turkey soup, a shiny polished silver spoon rested on top of a neatly folded napkin. The deep blue Royal Doulton porcelain with hand-painted gold decorations made the meal fit for nobility. Which, in this case, meant fit enough for his Ciel.

 

Loading it all on top of a tray with a smile, he added a cup and a pot of hot tea sweetened with honey, so that his young man could drink something soothing for his throat as he ate his meal.   
  
When he reached Ciel’s bedroom he balanced the tray on his left knee, holding it steady with one hand, so he could open the door. When he entered the room, Ciel’s gaze shot up immediately to watch him, as he walked across the room to place the tray in Ciel’s lap. The young man kept watching him as he placed the teapot and cup on his bedside table.

 

The bluenette drew in a deep breath as he grabbed the spoon, “Hey, that soup smells wonderful.”

 

“Thank you.” Sebastian smiled.

 

Ciel poked the bowl with a finger, “Looks like you made quite an effort?”

 

“No, no, it’s nothing…A simple turkey broth.”

 

“Okay.” Ciel looked confused for a moment, “Aren’t you going to eat? I’m _not_ eating alone.”

 

Sebastian’s smile widened, “I thought you might want to eat alone, but I’ll be right back if you want my company.”

 

He returned quickly with his own bowl of steaming soup and sat down in the chair beside Ciel’s bed. He noticed the younger had already helped himself to some of the tea.

 

He watched the younger eat his meal slowly out of the corner of his eye, and felt a sort of pang of sudden sadness that he wouldn’t have to spoon-feed him. It appeared the young man was healthy enough to eat by himself. He paid it no more mind as he dug in on the delicious soup as well.

 

Sunday, September 21st, 12.04 AM

  
When Sebastian had cleared away their bowls and done several other dull things that were needed to be done, he returned to Ciel’s bedroom.

 

When he entered the room and saw that Ciel was awake, he approached the bed and patted the area next to Ciel. The younger understood and held up the covers. Sebastian slipped in beneath them and pulled Ciel into his arms again. Ciel turned in the older man’s grasp so he could face him, then he closed his eye, sighed and pressed his face to Sebastian’s chest.

 

“I’m glad I crashed into you,” Ciel muttered against the fabric of Sebastian’s white shirt.

“I’m glad you’re wearing one of my shirts to bed,” he smirked.

 

Ciel raised his head to deliver a glare. “I’m only doing that because _you_ stole all my clothes!”

 

“Now, now, I didn’t _steal_ them, I washed them for you,” Sebastian blinked at him.

 

“Yeah, well none of my shirts are dry enough to sleep in-”

 

“They will be, sometime.” Sebastian cut off.

 

Ciel groaned and allowed his head to fall back against Sebastian’s chest. He only moved again when he felt Sebastian undoing the knot to his eye patch. “Don’t touch that.”

 

“Don’t mind me, just relax.” Ciel frowned at him, but then he did as he was told. The eye patch fell off his face. Sebastian’s fingertips replaced the patch and Ciel found that he didn’t care if Sebastian saw this mangled part of him any more.

 

The gentle touch felt quite nice and comforting, actually. The sound of Sebastian’s heart made him feel drowsy as well and he knew he was falling asleep. He reached out and grabbed Sebastian’s hand, intertwining their fingers and then he finally succumbed to sleep.  
  
Sebastian pulled his fingers through the lightly blue locks on the male sleeping on top of him. They felt so smooth he never wanted to stop stroking them, unless he could get his hands on that pale, warm skin instead. He gritted his teeth as an unexpected fantasy entered his mind and he felt his cock stir at the mere thought. ‘ _Now is not the time_ …’ A few mental images of Grell made all his worries fade. One rather big worry faded instantly.

 

The only other worry was that the hand Ciel was holding on to, whilst he was still sleeping, had started to feel slightly numb. He twisted his wrist a little, making the angle more comfortable.

 

The free hand that was stroking the younger’s hair started to make its way lower, as if it was acting on its own. He settled for rubbing his young man’s back, as if he was soothing a kitten rather than a sick human.

 

He relaxed more deeply into the bed, pulling the covers up more securely around the both of them. He yawned. Deciding he might as well take a little afternoon nap, he kissed Ciel’s hair ‘goodnight’ and he closed his eyes.

 

It took several minutes for him to fall asleep; the warmth of the young man on top of him kept distracting his mind towards more vigorous activities. He scolded his brain quite a few times on how inappropriate it was to think such things, that he should think of Ciel’s needs first and not his own literary heat-of-the-moment-desire. Staring blankly at the white ceiling, he felt his eyelids grow heavy.

 

09.43 PM.

 

“Sebastian!” Ciel was shaking the older man’s shoulders furiously, hissing his name between clenched teeth. He felt warm and sweaty but also as cold as ice, trying to wake the other up.

 

He was certain he had not imagined it. Not even _his_ mind could dream up something like that, something so truly horrifying. He sighed, but the sigh was cut short, the alarming tickling in his chest warned him not to breathe too deeply or he’d succumb to another couching fit.

 

Giving up on the niceties, he sat up straighter, climbing on top of the other male and slapped him hard across the face. He felt his own palm stinging at the contact. Sebastian grunted sleepily.

 

“Come ooon, wake UP, you old bastard!” Ciel didn’t quite dare yell, so he spoke close to Sebastian’s ear.

 

“I _am_ awake, you little tart, stop _hitting_ me…” Sebastian blinked one eye open to the darkness in Ciel’s bedroom.

 

Ciel snapped back into a sitting position, stared at him and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Sebastian spoke first,

 

“Why did you hit me anyway?” He lifted a hand and rubbed his red cheek, narrowing his eyes at the young man, sitting on top of him, straddling his waist.

 

Ciel kept staring at him, and then he lowered his voice to a mere whisper, “I heard someone.”

 

Sebastian kept his gaze steady at the younger’s mismatched eyes and lowered his hands to touch Ciel’s knees on each side of his chest. He rubbed then up and down, as he spoke, “Go on, tell me.”

 

“Grell.” The simple word made the whole scene change; Sebastian tensed up and clenched his hands over Ciel’s thighs, Ciel swallowed thickly, his throat feeling all the more sore and ached even worse because of the stupid cold.

 

“Tell me you’re making this up?” Sebastian’s face was starting to turn a sickly pale grey at the thought of the clingy redhead sneaking around outside his own home.

 

“No! Why would I?” Ciel smacked Sebastian’s head gently. “I don’t like him either, but he was yelling your name, twice. He woke me up.” Ciel’s hand lingered on the older man’s head, and he ended up curling his fingers into the soft hair.  
  
Sebastian was caught up in thoughts for a while. “Ciel, how long have I been asleep?”   
  
Ciel shrugged, “I don’t know. But I remember I got up and went to the bathroom at four, when you were still asleep.” He rubbed his scarred eye, “But it wasn’t dark then.”  


“Okay, get off me; we’ll resume this later, okay?” Sebastian nudged Ciel’s warm thighs.  


Ciel raised an eyebrow as he rolled off the older man, “Resume _what_ , exactly?”

 

Sebastian only grinned and got up from the bed. “Now, we’ll go see what that maniac wants.”

 


	13. Grell? Grell!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Ciel investigate what the hell is going on outside. A fight and a possible ax-murder follows.

Chapter Thirteen

 

‘ _Grell? Grell!_ ’

 

Ciel shivered as his bare feet met the cold tiles of the large entrance hall. He flicked a hand over his face to make sure the eye patch was still there, and then he hugged himself to keep warm.

 

He looked up at Sebastian’s back in front of him, broad and secure. He hurried to catch up with him before he reached the door. He was worried to death that Grell had been insane enough to bring some kind of weapon with him; God knew he was capable of it. “Sebastian?”   


The older man turned around at the sound of his name being called. “Yes?”  


Ciel looked him up and down, watching the man in front of him as if he was afraid this would be the last time he could lay eyes on that handsome face, those muscles…he cleared his throat, “What if he’s armed?”

 

Sebastian grinned broadly, “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with him, and then we’re off to bed again.” He even had the gall to blink mischievously towards the younger.

 

Ciel swallowed hard. His palms felt hot and clammy. He nodded briskly as Sebastian gestured towards the door. ‘ _Better to get it over with quickly if we’re going to confront Grell anyway_ ,’ he thought, and watched as Sebastian put his ear to the door and listened, wary that someone might be hiding behind it.   


Sebastian slid his long, lean fingers over the handle and wrung the door open almost completely noiseless. A chilly evening wind washed over them and Sebastian took a step through the door.   


Ciel joined him a second later in the doorway. Sebastian peered out into the dark driveway, but he couldn’t see a thing. The older man blinked; it felt almost like a thick curtain had been closed before their eyes. He straightened his back, raised his hands to his mouth and screamed, “Grell! Get the hell off my property!”   


A moment of silence passed, where both of them stood looking out into the darkness, then the lights in the hallway suddenly died out. The bluenette inched closer to Sebastian. Then a shrill voice called out to them from somewhere out in the darkness. “Hellooo, Sebas-chaaan!” Ciel imagined Grell, waving excitedly to match his voice.

 

Ciel felt the older man beside him stiffen further before he replied in a hard, icy voice, “Grell. Get the _hell_ off my property, or I’m calling the police.”

 

Grell’s voice sounded slightly muffled, as if he was hiding behind one of the small tree-like bushes that were planted around Sebastian’s home, “And tell them what? That you’ve kidnapped a kid? That you’re sooo sorry and want to turn yourself in?” The flamboyant redhead snickered, “Don’t worry darling, I’ll get rid of that brat for you, completely free of charge!”

 

Sebastian gritted his teeth, “He’s here by his own free will! Besides, you’re not getting rid of _anyone_ , you fucking lunatic!” He stared out into the dark, his eyes now used to the low light, but he could still not see his crazy ex-co-worker.

 

A soft giggle that bounced in the night was the sole answer to Sebastian’s roar. Then more silence.

 

Ciel coughed a little and Sebastian gave him a quick glance, his eyebrows curled up in concern, “You really should go inside, Ciel, that cold is going to grow even worse-”

 

A very determined glare met Sebastian’s worry filled burgundy eyes, “No.” He cleared his throat, “I’m fine.”   


Smiling a little at Ciel’s stubbornness, the older man swept his eyes across the dim lawn, trying to see where that red-headed maniac might be hiding. He concentrated on where he’d heard Grell’s voice the last time and strained his ears. He walked down the few steps to the ground, covered with gravel. When his own feet stopped making noises that seemed to reverberate in the dark, he heard a fine crunching sound to his left.

 

‘ _There you are…_ ’, he thought and took a sudden leap in that direction.

 

Black collided with red, a groan, a surprisingly loud snapping sound and then someone wailing in pain.

 

Ciel pressed his back into the wall next to the door, staring at the scene unfurling in front of him. Grell, clutching his arm, was the one screaming with his red glasses completely smashed, but still on his nose.

 

Sebastian, who had knocked Grell to the ground, scrambled quickly aside as aunt Ann emerged from the shadows behind the bushes, her teeth bared, swinging an axe towards him, missing his leg with barely an inch. “Die, you monster! You took my Ciel away from me, he belongs WITH ME!” Ann spat out her words in a gut-wrenching frenzy and lifted the axe above her head again, her eyes shiny with pure hate.

 

Ciel stared, shocked at the whole display of violence, before he saw Sebastian’s panicked expression and snapped out of his trance to run inside. ‘ _Quick, quick! Something to hit her with, anything, anything_ …’ he couldn’t seem to think clearly, Sebastian was in danger, his mind only a terrible jumbled mess- ‘ _ohmygod, Sebastian please don’t die_ -’

 

His hands grabbed the plastic shoehorn next to the door. He stared at it a second, then he snorted and threw it away. He racked his brain for makeshift weapons to use. Nothing. He groaned and stared at the polished floor. He pressed his palms to his temples and tried to think.

 

Suddenly, he had an idea. He started running as fast as his feet could bear him, to the other end of the hallway, where he knew Sebastian kept his cleaning supplies. He yanked the door open and rummaged around in the dark, his fingers searching a familiar shape… ‘ _Yes_!’

 

He grabbed the spray-bottle of special cleaning agent for wooden floors (if in contact to eyes, contact a doctor immediately) and headed back towards the front door.

 

His heart beat like crazy, what if they’d already hurt, or worse killed- ‘ _no, no don’t think like that_!’ -he bit his lip so hard it hurt, tasting blood in his mouth as he burst outside, ignoring his aching lungs and looked around to find Sebastian. He heard a noise of pain to his left. He treaded down the few steps onto the gravel, his bare feet making almost no noise at all.

 

He started shaking the bottle a little as he walked carefully towards the symmetric, tall bushes that were planted all around the manor. He hid behind one of them and tried to swallow down his hopping heart, and then he heard voices. He strained his ears, but he couldn’t make out any words…It was Sebastian…and Ann.

 

His eye shot open so wide it felt like it bulged out of his head. He started running again, this time ignoring the flaming pain in his chest as he screamed from the top of his lungs.

 

Ann stopped mid-swing with the axe above her head, Sebastian pinned beneath her polished high heeled shoe, obviously unconscious. As the young man watched, Ann’s eyes appeared to widen, staring at her nephew in what could only be described as disbelief. As Ciel raised his arm armed with the can of chemicals, she seemed to stare open-mouthed at Ciel for what felt like forever as the axe fell simultaneously to its target.

 

Ciel reached her the moment the weapon fell from her hands, in his periphery, he barely registered that the axe landed dangerously close to Sebastian’s head. He wasted no time and pressed his finger hard on the spray can, aimed directly at her big, fishlike eyes.

 

The cleaning agent seemed to do the trick, she screamed, flailed her arms and stumbled away from the body beneath her, writhing in pain she fell to her knees, ripping the stockings she wore and her fingernails tore at her weeping eyes that rapidly swelled shut beneath her clawing hands.

 

There was no sign of Grell, though, as Ciel quickly looked around. He stared with disgust at his relative. ‘ _How dare you even come near my Sebastian!_ ’ he felt his stomach drop, remembering what might have happened to the man in question.

 

He took a deep ragged breath, tried to shake off that creeping feeling of dread. He wanted to check on Sebastian, who was lying right behind him, but he was afraid to even look at him. He didn’t want to look and see Sebastian’s body depraved of all life. He felt his eyes burn. He bit back the tears that tried to emerge. His throat hurt and it wasn’t all because he was sick.

 

He remembered the promise Sebastian had given him. ‘ _Don’t worry, I’ll deal with him, and then we’re off to bed again_.’ He couldn’t help it. He turned around and fell to his knees next to Sebastian’s limp body with his eye firmly closed. He took another deep breath, calming down a little. ‘ _Come on, he’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about_ … _Go on, look at him_ …’

 

He had to look. He took a quick glance. The axe was lodged into the ground so close to Sebastian’s head it had cut off a piece of his beautiful obsidian hair. He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in.

 

All sound from the surroundings seemed to come back to him in a sudden burst of noise. He heard Ann moaning and cursing behind him. Ignoring her, he reached out a shaking hand and moved the axe out of the way. It fell to its side with a metallic clank.

 

Ciel’s hand quietly moved to Sebastian’s forehead. At least he was still warm. He touched the older man’s throat in search of a pulse. He found it. He released yet another shaky breath of relief. But there was blood on the ground when Ciel looked a little closer. His heart skipped a beat again. ‘ _Don’t tell me it’s_ …?’

 

He ran his fingers through Sebastian’s locks and gently probed around in search of a wound. He found one, but it was small enough. Ciel muttered beneath his breath, “It’s not yours, is it, you old bastard? Don’t scare me like that…”

 

He looked behind his shoulder to check on Ann again. She was still on the ground, clutching at her eyes. There was blood between her fingers. Ciel couldn’t care less. She’d tried to kill Sebastian. Feeling an unexpected surge of hate bubble up inside him, his fingers tightened around the can of cleaning agent, he wanted to be sure Grell had left before he-

 

“Ann?”

 

Grell’s shrill voice seemed to pierce his eardrums. The foolish redhead came running across the lawn, holding on tight to his arm that seemed to be stuck in a strange angle. He came to an abrupt halt, a shocked look in his face as he saw Sebastian lying on the ground, the axe lying next to him.

 

“Ann! What did you DO TO _MY_ SEBBY YOU-”

 

Ann didn’t answer, she kept moaning and whimpering, her hands not leaving her face.   


Ciel stood up, blocking the way when Grell approached. Grell gave Ciel his fiercest glare and yelled, “Get out of my way, you brat!”

 

Ciel did not budge. He merely raised his hand with the can to Grell’s eyelevel. “Leave. Unless _you_ want your eyes ‘cleaned’ as well.” A sinister smirk appeared on Ciel’s lips.

 

The redhead narrowed his eyes at the sight of the teen, and did his best glare. Then he seemed to realize that he did in fact not have his glasses on and therefore his eyesight was indeed in grave danger. He blinked. Then he lifted his uninjured arm to his face, felt across his nose to find nothing, except for blood, where he’d been hit by Sebastian. He paled a little.

 

When he spoke anew, Ciel’s voice was filled with possessiveness, “You can’t have Sebastian, because he’s with me.”

 

Grell quickly regained his attitude and huffed, “What would he want with a skinny little _kid_ like you?”

 

Ciel smiled, “A hell of a lot more than with you, I guess.”

 

All of a sudden, Grell looked genuinely defeated. He took a step back, “Listen, I’m sorry, okay? I’ll just-” He reached down and grabbed the moaning Ann by the collar of her dress, “-leave, okay? We’ll both leave. Okay? Please don’t ruin my eyes-”

 

Ciel glanced at his aunt, “Get her to a hospital-” he shoved the can closer to Grell’s eyes, finger perched on the button, “-and leave-us-alone!”

 

Grell squeaked and nodded jerkily, then he dragged the deranged aunt away from the Michaelis property faster than one could believe was possible for a man with a broken arm, Ann’s legs leaving a trail in the gravel behind them.

 

Ciel dropped the can to the ground and turned to Sebastian. He hadn’t moved an inch. Suddenly, Ciel became very aware of the fact that it was freezing outside, that he was only wearing one of Sebastian’s shirts and that he had to get the older man inside unless he’d catch pneumonia…

 

A strange numbness seemed to leave his body as they were finally alone again and Ciel noticed his throat and lungs felt like they were on fire, his whole body shivered almost uncontrollable and he felt another headache creeping up on him.

 

His knees hit the rough gravel next to Sebastian’s body and he shook his shoulders a little. He was afraid to jostle him too much, if he was injured and it wasn’t visible on the outside. Ciel shuddered at the thought of internal injuries. “S-sebastian? Are you okay?”   


The raven haired man made a noise as if he’d been running a marathon and then been run over by a herd of angry buffalo. His right hand rose slowly from its resting place on the ground, to make its way to his forehead. He rubbed his fingers over his closed eyelids as he groaned out a few words, “Ci-el? What’s-…”   
  
The younger did not answer; he wrapped his arms around the other’s chest, quickly burying his face into the crook of Sebastian’s neck and muttered quietly with a smile on his lips, “You’re alive…”

 

The older man did not say or react in a way Ciel would have noticed, he merely blinked his eyes open to stare down his own body, to actually make sure he himself was still in one piece. Then he relaxed a little, raising his other hand to pat Ciel on his back. “Yep, but I feel-” he cleared his throat, “-a little beat up, actually.” He heard the young man chuckle in response.   
  
Sebastian stared up into the black night sky. There was no moon reflecting its bleak light upon them, nor were there any stars. He wrapped both his arms tightly around Ciel, who was still hugging him. His head was sore, but the wound in the back of his head seemed like it had stopped bleeding. He was cold, exhausted and dirty. He wanted to get up, go inside and have a bath, but Ciel was almost naked, lying on top of him, perfectly happy that he was alive, not letting him move much. He moved to sit up, very slowly, pulling the young man up with him.

 

“Let’s get you inside, Ciel…”

 

The younger made no move. “It’s …too cold.” His teeth started clattering as he spoke.

 

Sebastian sighed and stood up with one arm wrapped around the younger’s shivering body, dragging him upright with him. “I can’t imagine how cold you must be.” A quick glance at Ciel’s face revealed that it was cold enough to make the younger’s lips shift into a deep blue colour. Sebastian leaned down a little and picked him up. This time, Ciel did not protest.   


\---

Ciel felt how all sound from the world around him disappeared; a warm, pleasant feeling was taking over his body and every single one of his senses. His entire being felt safe and secure in this dark, quiet land of nothingness.

 

Sadly, his momentary peace was abruptly disturbed by a loud banging on the bathroom door.

 

“Hey! Are you going to bathe until you’re shrivelled up like a raisin or do I need to come and get you myself?”   


Sebastian was leaning against the other side of the door, impatiently waiting for Ciel to come out. He’d already taken a bath, he was all warmed up and clean and wearing his usual bedclothes for the cold time of the year, black pyjama pants and a thin, white shirt. He wouldn’t need much else either, he thought, not now when he planned to share his bed with Ciel. He smirked at the thought.

 

He pulled his fingers through his damp hair and sighed. No more blood in his hair and almost no trace on his body that he’d been beaten unconscious. Well, apart from a few scratches from when he’d tackled Grell. He chuckled a bit at that.

 

Ciel ignored Sebastian’s call and coughed a few times. His throat ached terribly, but the headache was almost gone now. He sighed, rose from the tub and shuddered a little when the cold air met his bare skin. He stepped out of the tub, reached for a towel and dried off his hair as much as he could, before he wrapped it around himself. He leaned forward and was about to pull the plug to the tub when the bathroom door opened with a quiet click.

 

The young man spun around so quickly, his feet squeaked on the tiled floor. “Sebastian!”   
Ciel stared at the man in the doorway who smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at him. The young man narrowed his eyes when Sebastian didn’t answer, “Get out, I’ll be out in a minute.”

Sebastian smiled, “I’m waiting.”

 

“Then wait outside the door, thank you!” Ciel kept his hands on the towel around his waist, afraid to drop it, like in some stupid movie or something.   


Sebastian’s smile grew wider, “No, I think I’ll stay here, I’m quite satisfied with the view.” The young man in front of him blushed to his ears. Sebastian snickered to himself before he slipped out into the corridor again.   


Ciel shook his head at the thought of what the other man had said, and then he cleared his mind and swiftly dried himself off. He even pulled on the new shirt Sebastian had given him. The tub made a gurgling sound as the water vanished down the drain.

 

He glanced at himself in the mirror and winced a little as he saw his uncovered right eye. He stared into the reflection for a moment, and then he decided it didn’t matter whether he wore the eye-patch or not, Sebastian had already seen his disfigured face. He turned away and pushed the door open. Sebastian was leaning against the wall next to the door, but straightened himself up when he saw Ciel.

 

“There you are.” The older man held a bottle and a spoon in his hands.   


Ciel stared at the items and wasted no time, “What’s that?”

 

“Your medicine.” He winked and added, “ _My Lord_.”   


Ciel groaned at the nickname, but wasn’t as upset as last time. He sighed, “How much do I need to drink?”   


Sebastian poured a spoonful of a thick syrupy liquid as he spoke, “Oh, only a few drops.” He raised the spoon to Ciel’s lips. “It’s my own recipe.”

 

“Really?” Ciel opened his mouth and tasted the concoction. It didn’t taste exactly well, but when he swallowed it, it felt a little better in his throat. He received another dose and then Sebastian placed the bottle and the spoon on a small, ornate table nearby.  


“It is designed to soothe aching throats and unnerving coughs.” He looked at Ciel’s face, “Does it feel better yet?”   


He swallowed just to see if it hurt like the last few times, but found that the ache had diminished a lot. “Yeah, it does.” The annoying tickle in his chest had started to lessen as well.

 

Sebastian took a short step towards him and leaned close to the younger’s slightly damp hair and whispered with a sultry, silky voice into his ear, “Now then, let’s get back to bed, shall we?” If he’d been a cat, he would’ve purred.

 

Ciel didn’t say a word, he nodded his head jerkily and accepted Sebastian’s outstretched hand. He allowed himself to be pulled along, Sebastian leading the way. He was terribly tired, and felt that disturbing tickle in his lungs again, but when they passed the door to his bedroom and they kept walking, his mind became slightly panicked and his stomach fluttered to life with instant nervousness.

 

Sebastian stopped outside his own bedroom, opened the door and let the bluenette be the first to enter his private room. He followed the younger, closing the door behind himself. Ciel was stroking the black silk covers carefully as Sebastian lay down on the bed and pulled down the covers for the both of them. He turned to Ciel, his face smiling brightly, “I promised you we’d go back to bed, didn’t I?”

 

Ciel’s reply came out as a soft whisper, “Yeah, you did.” He was trembling, but he didn’t want to show it, so he got under the covers as fast as he could. He shivered slightly, the sheets were ice-cold.   
  
Sebastian kept his face as neutral as he could and shifted to lie on his side. Ciel wasted no time and scooted closer, desperately seeking warmth, his face pink with embarrassment.

 

A little scuffling and shifting later, he ended up with his back to Sebastian, and with the older man’s arms around him, he finally felt able to relax fully into the bed. He smiled as he felt the sheets slowly warming up from their body heat. The single, ocean blue eye slid shut surprisingly quickly and he was soon breathing softly in Sebastian’s arms.

 


	14. Oh, what an eyesore!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grell takes Ann to hospital and then we get to follow Sebastian and Ciel 17 days after the "battle"...

Chapter Fourteen

 

‘ _Oh, what an eyesore_.. _!_ ’

 

Grell was pacing in circles outside the white hospital door, his head bowed to stare at his feet when he moved. His arm ached, but since he’d already had it looked at and put in plaster, he decided to pay it no mind.

 

He was worried about Ann. He was worried whether the hospital staff would believe his half-arsed lie about what had happened. He chewed on a nail on his free hand. It started to bleed. He wiped the blood off on his stained jacket.

 

His mind kept whirling his thoughts around. What if they thought _he_ had done it? What if they called the police while he was still here, waiting for more news about Ann?

 

He groaned out loud. He couldn’t tell the truth, because then they’d be in serious trouble. _They_ had attacked the Michaelis Manor and its inhabitants, _not_ the other way round.

 

He knew he should keep his mouth shut for his own good. He stopped and pressed his forehead flat against the window to Ann’s room. The curtains were drawn, so he couldn’t see anything, but still…His nerves were on edge.

 

His thoughts wandered for a moment to the handsome doctor that he had spoken to earlier, about Ann’s probability to ever be able see again. He had seemed quite stoic and reserved at a first glance, but he had been kind to Grell and explained what could be done in order to save Ann’s vision. Then he had muttered a little to himself and vanished into the room where Grell was standing watch outside.

 

Grell had no idea how long he’d been waiting outside that room. He assumed it must be well past midnight by now, but he couldn’t be sure. There was no clock on the walls and he didn’t wear a wristwatch as a rule. His phone had gone out of battery so there was no use fishing it out of his pocket either. Yet he did that anyway. Staring at the black screen, he saw his own face and winced at his horrid appearance.

 

His skin was pale, one cheek covered with several small cuts along with a large and deep blue bruise. He pushed the phone back where it belonged. At that same moment, the door handle moved. Immediately, he turned towards the person in the doorway.

 

“Dr Spears? Ho-how is she?”

 

The doctor in question cocked his head to one side and stared at Grell with his almost luminous green eyes. They narrowed as he spoke, “I would call it a lost cause… She is blind and she is going to stay blind.”

 

He watched Grell’s face closely, to try to catch any sign of any emotion that shouldn’t be there. To try to see if Grell himself had caused this injury.

 

He decided there was no such indication and so he cleared his throat and continued, “It seems that the patient in question has suffered a quite common injury to the eye, one as we usually refer to as a ‘chemical burn’. That could, for example, mean exposure to certain household products, such as most of our common cleaning agents.”

 

Grell stiffened a little. The doctor did not seem to notice, if he did, he continued talking anyway.

 

“I must ask you, Mr Sutcliffe, if your friend sustained this injury, at home, as you told me, how come she did not try to rinse her eyes with water, immediately after the accident?”

 

Grell stared, dumbfounded at the doctor, “Um…well, we…eh, didn’t think of that.”

 

“Ah.” Dr Spears nodded thoughtfully before he spoke again, “But you see, Mr Sutcliffe, a normal human being who accidentally gets something into his or hers eyes usually rushes immediately to the sink… to try and wash the pain away, so to speak.”

 

He kept his eyes sternly fixed on Grell’s quavering form. “This woman, however, did not.”

 

A pause ensued, as thick and deep as the thickest of syrups.

 

“Can you tell me what happened, Mr Sutcliffe? I do not believe this was pure accident, you see.”

 

Grell felt droplets of sweat curl their way down his back. “I…um, we were cleaning the floor in the dining room, eh, at her place…and well, she must’ve held the can the wrong way and…well, I guess that’s how it…got into her eyes?”

 

“You guess?” Dr Spears’ eyes suddenly seemed to pierce right through the flat out lie he was fed and stared right at the truth that was hidden beneath Grell’s words. “You claim that you went straight to hospital with her as soon as you knew what had happened?”

 

“Yes, I did.” Grell nodded as he spoke, as if the words would be truer if he did.

 

“And just how, if I may ask, did that broken arm occur if you drove straight to the nearest hospital with her, without any incidents on the way here?”

 

Grell froze. He hadn’t thought of that. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He cleared his throat a little and tried again, “Eh, well you see…I heard her scream and I came rushing down the stairs…and…uh, I tripped?”

 

“You tripped.” The scepticism that was dripping from the word the doctor uttered; was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.

 

Dr Spears hadn’t seemed to have blinked, not even once during this whole conversation. Now his shoulders slumped and he released a sigh so deep it sounded like ragnarok was just around the corner. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

“I apologise, Mr Sutcliffe, but I felt this whole…episode, was rather unbelievable. I am sorry for my behaviour.”

 

He took a step back, opened the door and made an ushering move with his hand.

“You may see her now.” He coughed a little. “She is going to need a lot of moral support after an injury like this. I am sure you can help her with that much more than I can.”

 

With those words, Dr Spears turned on his heels and walked briskly away.

 

Grell held the door open and peeked put of it, to watch the doctor leave. Grell looked as long as he could, until he rounded a corner and could no longer be seen. Staring for a while at the white wall where the man had last been seen, he sighed and turned to see how Ann was doing.

 

 

October 8th , Early morning.   
  
Ciel stretched his arms high above his head and yawned. He threw a glance at the clock on the bedside table. No need to get up yet, it said.

 

So instead of getting up, he turned around, curled deeper into the thick and warm blankets, pressing his face into the crook of Sebastian’s neck. The older man was still asleep, so Ciel could indulge himself in a little shameless snuggling if he wanted to, he decided.

 

He was warm and safe, the smell of Sebastian’s hair was something he loved, but wouldn’t tell the man even if his life depended on it. That was just too much, he thought sleepily.

 

Without noticing it, he drifted off again. When he awoke the second time, it was to a feeling of something hard pressing into his thigh. Sebastian grunted into his ear.

 

Ciel woke the man up with a small kiss on those parted lips. He wasn’t ready for such things, Sebastian knew that. But if the man was asleep, who could blame him for wanting to rub himself off on a warm seemingly willing body lying in his arms?

 

The unwanted movement stopped as soon as the man came to his senses. But he didn’t move away, no, he hugged his young man closer to his chest and sighed.

 

“Good morning Ciel.”

 

“Morning”, came the sleepy response.

 

Sebastian sighed again, this time it was a sound of desperation. “I don’t want to move, but I really should go now.” He grimaced and untangled himself from the bed sheets.

 

Ciel watched him get up and disappear behind the bathroom door. He knew exactly what was going on behind that door and blushed a little as his mind ventured on an imaginative stroll down the path regarding a certain part of Sebastian’s anatomy.

 

Deciding that he’d dwelled enough on such perverted thoughts, he knew he should get up and get dressed for his own mind’s health. Sighing in defeat, he threw the duvet off himself and walked quickly across the room to the soft carpet so he wouldn’t freeze his feet off.

 

When Sebastian returned from the bathroom, he stopped, catching sight of the young man in front of him, naked from the waist up. The issue he already took care of in the bathroom is starting to stir again. He quickly averts his eyes and turns his back to the bluenette instead. Thinking hard of things such as dirty old socks soon made him regain his self control.

 

In the meantime, Ciel had already finished dressing himself and was looking at him curiously.

 

Ignoring the obvious question hanging suspended in the thick air around them, Sebastian cleared his throat and gestured for Ciel that he’d go downstairs.

 

“I’ll…just go make some breakfast, okay?”

 

Ciel kept staring at him, then he shrugged, “Yeah, sure. Earl grey for me, please.”

 

Sebastian nodded, “No problem.” He approached the door with an outstretched hand, when Ciel’s voice made him stop.

 

“Um…Sebastian? Aren’t you going to get some clothes on?”

 

“Right. Yes.” He looked down on his pyjamas and faked an expression that said, ‘I knew I had my nightclothes on’.

 

Giggling, Ciel disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Sebastian feeling quite brainless.  


…

  
Sebastian was already sipping his tea when Ciel came down the stairs into the kitchen. Looking up at the teen, he returned his cup to its saucer and waited until Ciel had seated himself before he started scuffling with a rectangular package beneath the table.

 

The bluenette raised an eyebrow and watched him inquisitively as he poured himself some tea and helped himself to one of the delicious sandwiches Sebastian had made for breakfast.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Sebastian smiled as he placed the package on the table. “I’ve got something for you.”

 

Ciel looked momentarily stunned, then he pointed a finger to his chest and blurted out, “Wha, me?”

 

Sebastian nodded and pushed the gift across the table so the teen could reach it.

 

Ciel moved his cup of tea out of the way, so he wouldn’t knock it off the table. His fingers traced the silk ribbon tied into a decorative bow, keeping the lid on the box safely shut, before he tugged on one of the ends to untie it.

 

The bow came loose easily, and he removed the lid whilst licking his lips in anticipation. The lid stayed in his hands, hovering a few inches above the exposed gift, in Ciel’s trembling hands, before he unceremoniously dropped it to the floor.

 

It was the violin. Sebastian’s violin.

 

“Y-you can’t-” he croaked.

 

Sebastian calmly sipped his tea as he watched the whole scene unfurl before him. When the teen finally looked up at him with his beautiful blue eye, Sebastian smiled and said, “Well, I can’t play it, so it’s no more than a sentimental memory for me. I’d much rather see it in the hands of someone as talented as you.”

 

Ciel merely gaped. “I…I can’t accept this, it’s-”

 

Sebastian looked at him over the edge of his teacup. “Stop. Just stop, Ciel.”

 

The young man swallowed and then he stared down into the box. “I’m not that good.”

 

Sebastian reached out a warm hand and weaved his fingers through Ciel’s soft hair. “Believe in yourself.” He smiled, “Because I know you have a talent.”

 

Ciel’s face burned in crimson as Sebastian’s fingers traced across his cheek and lingered at the corner of his mouth.

 

Ciel stared at the older man’s face. “Sebastian…thanks. Really, thank you so much.”

 

“You’re welcome.” He retracted his hand to himself and devoted his attention to the breakfast until there was time to give Ciel a ride to school.

 

…

Alois Trancy was dancing around on the spot next to the rest of their classmates, outside the classroom when Ciel arrived with his bag. He locked onto Ciel like a particularly nasty leech as soon as he saw him.

 

“Oooh! You can’t guess what Claude gave me this morning!”   
  
Ciel eyed him warily, then he responded, “Um, no?”

 

Alois giggled and twirled in his large purple coat. It seemed he was too happy to realize the fact that he’d just acted normal towards Ciel. Well, as normal as Alois Trancy could be.

 

The other students surrounding them watched their interaction with much interest, how long would it take until Alois made his move? How many seconds would it take until he threw a truly scathing remark?

 

“Look, look!” Alois pressed a smallish gleaming screen into Ciel’s field of vision.

 

“Um, it’s a phone?” Ciel felt a bit stupid suggesting the obvious, but that was about how updated he was on the area regarding smartphones and such technology.

 

He knew Sebastian owned one and that was pretty much the only one he’d ever seen up close. He’d borrowed it to play some games when he was lying in the sofa with his head in Sebastian’s lap when the older man had been reading. (Or faked reading, Ciel wasn’t too sure.) How would he know what kind of phone Alois was shoving in his face? His mind lingered a little at the fond memory of that particular game-night as Alois prattled on with his gibberish into his ear.

 

“A _phone_! A phone…” Alois sighed melodramatically, “Oh mah gawd Ciel, you’re soo ignorant sometimes!” He kept grinning like a madman and a few other student started giggling.

 

“It’s the latest model! It’s got all the new features you’ve read about online and-” he took a deep breath, “- _I got Claude’s number in it_!”

 

Ciel stared at the usually much meaner student. ‘ _What the hell’s goin’ on?_ ’ he quietly asked himself. “Um, yeah. Well, that’s nice then?”

 

Alois flung his arms high above his head, “Nice! It’s fucking brilliant!” Then he swept a scrutinizing look at Ciel, staring at him from top to bottom and continued, “Yeah, well you wouldn’t know anything about _that_ , would you?”

 

Ciel glared at him and was just about to say something in return when he was interrupted.

 

The blond giggled, “I mean, I’m not even sure our ugly git for a math teacher would fuck you. Unless you _paid_ him, of course.” He grinned wickedly before he started laughing, the other students soon joining in.

 

Ciel bit his tongue and felt his face heat up. ‘ _Ignore them, think of the violin, Sebastian is generous and kind, I don’t even want them to like me so why do I even bother_ -’   
  
The young man’s depressing thoughts were interrupted when the teacher came running down the corridor.   
  
“Hi there! Sorry I’m late.”

 

The teacher, a middle aged man with pale hair and his roots in India, was their history teacher. He stopped outside the classroom, leaning onto the door whilst rummaging around in his deep pockets, trying to find his keys.

 

Alois giggled a little in the background. He tiptoed up behind his teacher’s back and tugged at a slip of fabric that was loose in the man’s turban. When it didn’t come away, Alois grit his teeth, the smile now long gone, and yanked hard on the fabric. It did not move an inch.

 

The teacher gave Ciel a smile and blinked at him. As he fished out his key ring and straightened up, forcing Alois to stop his ridiculous antics, he whispered beneath his breath, “Superglue.”   
  
Ciel let out an amused snort and smiled back at the teacher when he allowed Ciel to step into the classroom first.

 

…

Sebastian was staring at his work. Four newly painted canvases were strewn around him, all of them picturing a certain blue haired young man. Sebastian sighed and rubbed at his neck. He knew he liked to paint him, he just didn’t know how to make the Ciel on his paintings smile.

 

Every single one depicted a forlorn looking teen, instead of the relaxed and content teen he knew. He was just about to pull out a new canvas to try again, when his mobile rang. Picking it up eagerly from its place on the pile of old canvases, he grinned until he saw the number that was calling. He didn’t recognize it, but he shrugged and answered anyway.   


“Hello?”

  
There was a scuffling sound in the other end, until a hushed voice said, “Sebastian?”

 

“Yes, that’s me. Who’s this?” Sebastian furrowed his brows and sat down on his painting stool, in front of the easel.

 

“It’s me, Grell.”

 

Sebastian grimaced and almost hung up, but then he became slightly curious. “And why, pray tell, are you calling _me_ for?”   
  
“I...I just wanted to apologize. You know, about…what happened.”   
  
Sebastian stared absentmindedly at one of his paintings. It just happened to be a portrait of Ciel, honestly. “Mmmh. Apology accepted, but only if you two leave us alone in the future, okay?”

 

Grell’s voice lightened up noticeably at that, “Yes, yes of course! It’s just that…”

 

Sebastian waited, but had to urge him on, “Go on.”

 

“I think I found something that belongs to…to Ciel?”   
  
“What’s that then? I thought we gathered all his belongings when we emptied out his old room two weeks ago!”   
  
“Don’t shout, shh. Ann’s asleep.”   
  
Sebastian rolled his eyes at the absurd thought that he’d care about that old hag. “Alright, what is it you’ve found then?”   
  
“A ring. It looks like genuine silver and it’s got a large blue stone in the middle. Mmmh…maybe some sort of a crest too.”

 

Baffled, Sebastian held his breath a moment. “Are you… _sure_?”   
  
Grell nodded, then realized Sebastian couldn’t see that and said, “Yeah. I’m looking at it right now.”

 

“Alright then. I’ll come and get it for him. He’s still in school.” Sebastian stood up and headed towards the door, “Where can I meet you? I don’t want to see that… _aunt_ of his.”   
  
The redhead on the other end of the line slipped the ring into his coat pocket, “Outside the library?”   


“Fine. Ten minutes.” Sebastian hung up.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the latest chapter!   
> New update probably sometime in the middle of December. 
> 
> (Also, Happy Anniversary to this story! It turned One yesterday~)


	15. The Creep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian meets up with Grell, Ciel has a disturbing day at school.  
> But none of that matters when they are together again.

 

Chapter Fifteen

 

“ _The Creep_ ”

 

His fingers caressed the cold, unforgiving metal of the weapon in his hand. A careful finger slipped six bullets into the revolver’s cylinder. It felt heavy in his hand, heavy with the promise that it would grant its user respect, even if it was born from fear. After regarding it in the dim light of the lamp, he allowed it to slip into the lining of his trousers, close to his right hand with the thin ghost of a smile adorning his lips.

 

\---

 

When Grell arrived at the library, Sebastian was already waiting for him, his slim body leaning casually against his gleaming black car. A look of annoyance flashed across that handsome face as Grell saw he had been spotted.

 

As Grell approached him carefully, Sebastian eyed him up and down, a suspicious look evident on his face. The red-head stopped a few feet in front of the other man and held out his empty hands.

 

“No weapons,” he said. Sebastian did not relax. Grell sighed and shifted restlessly on his feet; Sebastian noticed the movement and stood up, tall and intimidating.

 

“Do you have it?” Sebastian arched an eyebrow, going straight for the point. Really, no meaning in stopping things up by small talk or other tedious things.  


Grell nodded and quickly plucked it from his pocket. It glittered in the bright sunlight.  
Sebastian held out his hand and gave Grell a meaningful look. Grell did not place the Phantomhive family ring onto Sebastian’s outstretched palm, no. Instead, he held it up close to his nose and looked at it, his eyes narrowed into thin slits. Humming, he twirled the small object between his fingers, making Sebastian boil with anger.

 

“Hand it over! It is not yours to keep.”

 

Grell pouted towards him, “Well, it’s not _yours_ either, now is it?”

 

Sebastian gritted his teeth, but he lowered his hand. “What do you want?”

 

Grell’s eyes glinted for a moment with the look of a lunatic, and then he cleared his throat and seemed to hesitate, before he spoke. “I’ll give you the ring; I know you’ll pass it on to Ciel. Anyway, I’d like some advice first.”  


Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “Advice?” he said, coldly.  


Grell nodded, “Yes, you see…”

 

Sebastian sighed, “Really, I couldn’t care less about you, or your problems, just give me the ring.”

 

“I will! Just…hear me out, okay?” Sebastian glared at the red-head, but then he inclined his head, giving permission for an explanation, even if it was a short one.

 

Grell started talking rapidly, shivering at the cold look in Sebastian’s burgundy eyes, “So, um, when I went to the hospital, there was this doctor there that-that-”  


Sebastian sighed. “You want love-advice?”  


Grell’s face lightened up. “Yes. Exactly.”  


The taller male’s face suddenly changed, his upper lip curled as he spoke, his words dripping with contempt, his voice as always soft and seducing, “And, just _how_ …do you expect me to help _you_ …with a task that is so helplessly lost beyond any horizon?”  


Grell visibly paled at the harsh words. He felt cold sweat trickle down his back and the broken arm just had to keep itching beneath the plaster. He swallowed nervously and wiped his clammy palms on his jacket. “Sebastian, please? Just-…help me out a little, okay? I’ll never bother you again, I swear!”

 

Sebastian kept his eyes narrowed a moment longer, then he sighed. “What on earth do you want me to tell you?” He shrugged, “You’ll never find anyone who’s as socially awkward as I am.”

 

When Grell just watched him and did not answer, he asked, “What’s his name then? If you’re going to try to get him out on a date, you should at least know his name.”

 

“It’s Dr Spears.” Sebastian’s shock must have been obvious on his face, because Grell squealed, “Oh, you’ve met him! Isn’t he _amazing_?”

 

Sebastian narrowed his eyes and backed away a few steps, the red head looking as if he could burst with sudden glee. “Yes…I’ve met him.” Sebastian waited for the other to calm down a little, then he continued, “Why don’t you just buy him some chocolate and a few flowers?”  


Grell’s brows furrowed in worry, “What if he doesn’t like chocolate? Or flowers?”

 

Sebastian sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. “How am I supposed to know what he likes! Now just give me the damned ring! I gave you your advice already.”  


Grell shifted his weight between his feet again, biting his lower lip. “Oh, what the hell. Just take it already!”

 

Grell suddenly threw the ring towards Sebastian; it bounced on the car’s window and landed at Sebastian’s feet. Sebastian watched as the flamboyant red head stormed away from the parking lot outside the library in fury.  

 

Sebastian released a shaky sigh of up-kempt relief. He quickly picked the ring up from its disgraceful place on the dirty ground and he slipped it into his pocket. A small smile crept up his face as he slipped his slim body into the driver’s seat of his beloved car. A piece of metal made him gasp in pain. He dropped the gun on the passenger seat. That stupid thing had been digging into his hip as he sat down.

 

\---  


Ciel found himself daydreaming in the middle of the day’s final lesson. A simple reason, really. A tall, dark haired and handsome reason. He sighed, oblivious to the fact that the teacher was waiting for a reply from him. When he finally realized the situation, he flinched in his seat and began to stutter out the answer. Only, it had already been answered, several minutes ago. He felt the blush creeping up on his face.

 

Then, the bell rang and the class was dismissed, before anyone had had a chance to laugh at him. He hurried out of the classroom, only to be forcibly dragged back into it. He turned to face whomever it was, to tell them to shove it, but he remained silent when he saw that it was their teacher who’d grabbed him.

 

Standing quietly next to each other until the final student had left the room, the madly grinning teacher, no, fill-in-teacher, finally released his grip on Ciel’s elbow.

 

The young man stood in front of the teacher’s desk, with a polite smile. As polite as he could manage, at the moment. The teacher did not seem to mind his expression, he started giggling instead. Ciel furrowed his brows. Really, where did this school find all the nutty teachers? “Um...Sir? Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk to me about?”

 

“Oooh, please, call me Undertaker! I’ve told you,” he tutted, “…at least fifty times, to call me that!”

 

Ciel raised an inquiring eyebrow, “Er…sure…Undertaker?”

 

The man in question still giggled and said, “Seems like you were entertaining yourself without my help today.”

 

Ciel couldn’t believe his ears, that damned teacher made it sound like he was some kind of cheap whore! He felt his face heat up in anger, but he kept his expression as neutral as possible, despite his blood boiling at the accusation.

 

Undertaker kept grinning then he whispered, “Don’t do it again. Now, off you go!”

 

As Ciel passed the man on his way out, he felt his arse being squeezed appreciatively. He yelped and turned around, slapping the older straight across the face. They stood there staring at each other for what felt like an eternity, before Ciel abruptly turned and ran.

 

\---

Sebastian was sitting in his studio, twiddling a small paintbrush between his fingers. His eyes swept over the canvas in front of him, resting in the easel. Finished. He was finished. The portrait of _his_ young man was done, at last. He smiled.

 

As he rose, he grabbed a piece of white cloth from its place on the small side table where he kept his paint. He stalked out of the room, closed the door carefully behind himself and headed towards the bathroom. As he was cleaning the used brush in the sink, he couldn’t keep his mind off what Ciel might think of the painting. He was nervous that he’d reject it and at the same time he realized he didn’t know what time it was.

 

He threw a quick glance at his pocket watch as soon as he’s wiped his hands and the brush on the white cloth. With a whispered curse between gritted teeth, he simultaneously put his watch back into his pocket where made a silent clinking noise when it made contact with the silver ring, and he dropped the brush into the cup together with his own toothbrush. He rushed downstairs, grabbed his car keys and his jacket on the way out the door. He silently hoped that Ciel wouldn’t try to walk home alone.

 

\---

Ciel was still running when he heard the familiar sound of Sebastian’s car approaching. He slowed down, just in time, before the car appeared around a corner of a street a few houses away. Ciel took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He didn’t want Sebastian to think there was something wrong.

 

He smiled at the older man as the car stopped by the curb so he could climb in. Sebastian immediately grabbed him around the neck and pulled him close to his face, giving the blushing youngster a quick kiss on the cheek.

 

“What was that for?” Ciel asked, his hand unconsciously travelling to touch the spot Sebastian had kissed.

 

Sebastian smirked as he answered, “Oh, I don’t know.” He glanced at him and winked, “Maybe I just find you too delectable not to kiss?”  
  
Ciel felt his heart beat a little faster at those words and smiled back.

 

\---

As Sebastian closed the door behind them, he announced, “Ciel, wait, I’ve got a surprise for you.”  
  
Ciel stopped and turned to face the other. “Really?”

 

“Close your eyes.”  
  
Ciel did as he was told and felt Sebastian’s hands cover both his eyes. He was turned around and led into the living room. He sat down when nudged to. Sebastian removed his hands and repeated the plea to the bluenette to keep his eyes closed. Ciel heard Sebastian move in front of him and felt his hand being grasped. Something small was placed in the palm of his hand and Sebastian softly said, “You may look now.”  
  
Ciel first locked eyes with Sebastian, who was kneeling in front of him and still smiling. Then he glanced at his hand and gasped. “S-sebastian! Where..?”

 

Sebastian winked at him mischievously, “What kind of boyfriend would I be, if I couldn’t even find the lost family ring of my beloved?”  
  
Ciel’s face lit up like a fireplace. He started to stutter, but was silenced by a finger pressed across his lips. He looked down at his lap as Sebastian withdrew his hand and slipped the ring onto a finger. His gaze was finally ripped from the sapphire when Sebastian grabbed him gently and dove in for a proper kiss. Closing his eyes, he forgot everything about that creepy teacher and allowed Sebastian to lift him up into his arms, lips still locked together in a possessive claiming from both sides.

 

Sebastian broke the kiss, slightly dishevelled and asked with a very serious voice, “Ciel, are you quite sure about this?”  


A bright blue eye stared back at him. He hadn’t been surer of something his entire life. He decided to show Sebastian exactly how much he consented by starting to undo the older man’s shirt buttons.

 

Grinning like the Cheshire cat at the encouraging response, Sebastian greedily returned to those delicious lips as he rose from the floor, his hands holding and squeezing Ciel’s buttocks, they headed straight to his bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's both late and short ^^;   
> Really hard to write this one...
> 
> But! If you review, some dreams might come true in the next chapter! *wink, wink*


	16. My love, you have showed me what heaven looks like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! This is the un-censored version of chapter 16!   
> I hope you enjoy it~ 
> 
> Word Count: 3 438 (7 pages) 
> 
> I do not own Kuroshitsuji!

Chapter Sixteen

 

“ _My love, you have showed me what heaven looks like_.”

 

 

Sebastian carried his young man up the staircase, somewhat distracted by the younger’s legs that wrapped themselves securely around his waist and the undivided attention his throat was receiving from him.

 

They tumbled inside Sebastian’s luxurious bedroom, lips locked together as if they needed each other as much as the oxygen they were both gasping for. Sebastian blindly wandered in the direction of the large bed and lowered Ciel down onto it in a single, smooth motion.

 

Ciel licked his lips when Sebastian leaned away from him. He wanted to undo those last few buttons on Sebastian’s shirt and kiss that sharp collarbone that was shyly hiding behind the half open shirt. He wanted those lips on his own so much he didn’t know how he’d survive the time it took for the older man to finally be rid of his shoes.

 

While Sebastian was still pulling off his socks, he was forcibly grabbed by the fabric of his shirt and suddenly claimed by a pair of juvenile lips once more. He allowed his eyes to close slowly, as he followed the tug up onto the bed where Ciel scooted closer to the headboard, dragging the older with him. Sebastian never lost contact and pressed the younger down a little against the silky bedcovers. The bulge in his trousers was no longer deniable, he felt dizzy with a need to touch that pale skin, kiss every inch of it and completely lose himself in his young man. Instead, he forced himself to slow down. Any second now, he felt in his heart that Ciel wouldn’t be able go through with this. It was simply too good to be true. But he could, and would wait, until Ciel was ready to act upon his feelings. His heart ached, he wanted to make his bluenette feel safe enough to indulge in these kinds of pleasures, and at the same time, all he wanted was to just, finally, have the mind-blowing sex he’d imagined and fantasized about for weeks.

 

A bang startled him from his thoughts and when he opened his eyes he realized it was Ciel’s shoes that had hit the wall. The younger’s death-grip on his shirt finally loosened as he started to undo the final few buttons with trembling fingers. Sebastian sat back a little, allowing the younger to slip off that white shirt.

 

Ciel stared at the exposed flesh and swallowed hard. He’d seen Sebastian’s naked torso before, one time when Ciel had ventured into the bathroom without knocking first. But that had merely been a quick glance before he’d abruptly turned and left the room, embarrassed beyond wits. Now, he couldn’t help to wonder, as he gingerly placed his trembling hands on warm skin, just how big the other was…downstairs. Ciel felt himself blush and closed his eyes.

 

Sebastian reached out a hand to lightly caress the outline of the eye-patch before he snuck a pair of fingers beneath the silk and tugged it off. He raised his other hand as well, to slowly unbutton the soft shirt under his fingers. Leaving the shirt hanging open, he traced his way downwards from the younger’s collarbones down to his chest, making him shiver as he stroked past his nipples. Sebastian loved the feeling of that warm flesh beneath his long fingers. He desperately wanted to touch the naked skin and feel its warmth without any annoying cloth in between, but he was afraid his young man would become too uncomfortable.

 

Ciel’s eyes were still closed, his breathing irregular and his hands touching and feeling their way across Sebastian’s stomach, when Sebastian suddenly grabbed the younger’s wrists and pushed them aside, and before Ciel could ask why, it became obvious as Sebastian pulled off both their shirts.   
  
Sebastian stared at the exposed chest in front of him. He licked his lips and placed his hands on each of Ciel’s shoulders, gently pushing him down into the mattress. He gave the younger a reassuring kiss and started tugging off his trousers and underpants in one go.

 

Ciel took a deep, shaky breath and lifted his hips off the bed to help Sebastian with the task. When it was done and he was naked and helpless, sprawled out on Sebastian’s sheets, he closed his eyes again, his mind starting to reel with all kinds of disturbing images of his past. He gulped down some more air and steeled his mind. He didn’t want anything to interfere now, least of all bad memories. He heard the soft sound of clothes falling to the floor and when he opened his eyes again, he was staring at a very naked, very beautiful, Sebastian hovering above him. He almost whimpered at the sight and screwed his eyes shut tightly. He didn’t dare raise his hand to touch, he wanted to, oh he wanted it so bad, but he was afraid that he would be shaking too much. Instead, he opened his mouth and whispered,   


“Sebastian…could you…?”

 

Sebastian didn’t need to be asked twice. The younger had not backed out yet, so now he felt confident enough to keep going. His mind was a jumbled mess where he both rejoiced that he’d finally get to show Ciel that sex could be nice, and a sort of strange feeling that kept telling him he should be very, _very_ careful. He lowered his head, closed his eyes and ran his nose down Ciel’s collarbone, further down and past his breastbone and stopped, briefly to kiss his stomach. The young man beneath him actually giggled.   


Sebastian raised his lips high enough so that he could murmur, “Does it tickle?”   
  
“Yeah,” Ciel gasped, “your hair, it tickles.” He took a shallow breath, “And that, too.”  
  
Sebastian looked up at him from where he lay between the younger’s legs, “What? This?” He ran his fingers lightly alongside Ciel’s ribs.   
  
“Y-yes. That…tickles.”   
  
Sebastian stopped his hands from stroking further down and looked up at his impossibly beautiful lover beneath him. “Are you sure of this? Really?”   
  
Ciel stared at him a moment, and Sebastian spoke again, “We can stop, you know, we don’t have to-”   
  
“You don’t want me?” The words cut off Sebastian’s doubt as if it had been sliced in half.   


“Ciel, no, no don’t ever think that. Of course I want you…”   


The younger stared up at him with a puzzled look on his face, and muttered, “Then why don’t you want to..?”   


Sebastian surprised the younger by grabbing him and pulling him up tightly against him, chest crushed against chest. “Because, you silly boy, I don’t want to _hurt_ you.”

 

Ciel fell silent. Then he wrapped his arms around Sebastian and said mirthfully, “You can’t hurt me.”   
  
Sebastian leaned back so he could look into those mismatched eyes, “Oh, really now?”  
  
Ciel stole a quick kiss, “Nope. You’d sooner die than hurt me.”  
  
The older man narrowed his eyes and muttered, “Seems you know me too well. Brat.”  
  
Ciel giggled and locked onto those delicious lips again and pulled the other down on top of him, hungry for more.

 

As Ciel was almost moaning into his mouth when he nibbled at his tongue, Sebastian busied his hands elsewhere. Stroking his large hands over Ciel’s warm thighs made him groan and kiss the younger more eagerly, more passionate. Ciel’s hands were stroking his chest, trailing down to what he’d secretly longed to see. When his hands found Sebastian’s hard arousal, he gasped into the kiss and broke away, needing to see what he touched. It was so warm and soft. As his eyes caught sight of whet he was looking for, he almost flinched. Sebastian was hard, big and Ciel suddenly felt his mouth water at the sight. The thick shaft stood proudly out from a thick curl of black hair and Ciel swallowed. Loudly.

 

Sebastian leaned down to catch another quick kiss on those beautiful lips before he allowed his hands to touch the younger’s swollen cock. Stroking it, it lengthened and stiffened between his fingers and Sebastian scooted down the bed until he head was level with Ciel’s cock. A brief look into Ciel’s eye passed before he reached out with his tongue and licked it.

 

Ciel opened his mouth to say something, but was cut short when he felt Sebastian go down on him, sucking his entire cock into his mouth. The young man fell back into the pillows with an outstretched groan of pleasure. He reached out his hands and curled his fingers into Sebastian’s black hair. The heat, the wetness and that clever tongue sure knew how to get him off the hinges.

 

When he was a moaning and babbling mess, Sebastian withdrew a little, only providing the occasional lick to the younger’s proof of need. Ciel groaned and pulled at Sebastian’s hair to make him go back down. Smiling, Sebastian complied and moved his lips around the tip of the cock, sucking lightly before his tongue slipped over the silky head and licked at the leaking slit. Ciel was amazed, shocked and a little bit embarrassed. Sebastian placed his tongue flat against the underside of Ciel’s cock, following the trail of the vein there, all the way back to the tip, before he buried it as far as it would go down his throat once more, sucking harder than before. Ciel was panting, desperately clawing at Sebastian’s scalp.

 

“S-stop-Seba-ah-astian, stop, or…I’ll-I’ll…” He never got a chance to finish the sentence, he was already coming into Sebastian’s mouth, which was greedily gulping it down, swallowing against the cock in his mouth. Ciel was gasping, trying to hold onto the wonderful floating feeling he’d just experienced, but it was over too soon. At least he did feel quite relaxed now.

 

Sebastian raised his head to look at the bluenette as he came down from his high. He licked his lips slowly.

 

“Did you like that?”

 

Ciel nodded slowly, too comfortable to speak up. Sebastian was moving towards him, straddling him and leaned down for a kiss. Ciel felt that tongue prodding at the seam of his lips and he slowly opened his mouth to allow Sebastian entry. He could taste himself in Sebastian’s mouth, but he didn’t care, it felt too good.

 

They spend a good amount of time kissing, suckling and licking each others throats, chests and nipples until Sebastian could feel that cock rising to push against his stomach again. His own pulsing cock twitched at the thoughts that passed in Sebastian’s mind. He snatched onto Ciel’s lower lip and sucked it into his mouth, nibbling it lightly, making the younger moan in delight.

 

Because of that, he was a little disappointed when Sebastian pulled away, only to be reaching out to the small night table by the bed. Ciel watched him as he opened a drawer and plucked a small bottle from its depths. Ciel swallowed when he understood what it was.

 

“Do you want more?” Sebastian’s words were serious, but the expression on his face was even more serious. “I won’t do anything unless you truly want me to.”

 

Ciel felt his heartbeat throb in his ears. He felt warm, too warm and he wanted to be closer to Sebastian, he wanted to touch, to feel…but he was still a little afraid. But this was Sebastian, he trusted him and Sebastian was really going to… “Yes… yes, of course I want to…”

 

Sebastian relaxed a little at those words and immediately grabbed a pillow. Ciel furrowed his brows in confusion as Sebastian grabbed him and pushed him up a little, to place the pillow beneath the small of his back.

 

When Ciel asked why, Sebastian replied with a husky voice, “I want to watch your face as you come with me inside you.”

 

Ciel was a little taken aback at the blunt answer. He’d been distracted during that amazing blowjob, but now the fear was slowly seeping back into his heart. He was staring at Sebastian’s engorged cock. There was simply no way, no way at all that _that_ would fit inside him. Nope. No way.

 

Sebastian seemed to sense his worry, for he reached out and kissed his cheek as he murmured, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.”

 

“B-but…” Ciel gestured meekly towards Sebastian’s midriff.

 

Sebastian leaned down and licked a trail from the younger’s naval to his nipple, sucking it for a moment and then stopping when he arrived at that thin throat. A deep, reassuring kiss and Sebastian spoke softly against his skin, “Relax, I’ll fit. I can’t promise it won’t hurt at first, but please, tell me if it does and I’ll stop, okay?”

 

Ciel gasped out a yes, as Sebastian closed his lips against Ciel’s throat and sucked until he was sure he’d leave a mark. Smirking, he returned to the lower half of Ciel’s body, making sure he touched and stroked every available inch of flesh on the way down.

 

As he was stroking those sweet buttocks, Ciel flinched a little, but then relaxed back into the mattress when Sebastian made a reassuring noise. He poured himself a generous amount of lubrication onto his palm and stroked his hand over Ciel’s bottom, massaging him a little, to ease the tension.

 

When he noticed Ciel had gotten used to the touch, he started to slowly circle the small pucker with a single finger, all the while looking for any sign that Ciel might want to stop. When he found none, he slowly breached that entrance, earning a breathless gasp from the body beneath him. He kept pushing until his finger was sheathed completely, all the way up to the last knuckle.

 

Ciel was concentrating on the fact that it was Sebastian doing this to him, not anyone else. It felt strange, but not as revolting as he’d initially thought. He relaxed a little and felt how Sebastian curled his finger inside him, withdrew and pushed in again. Sebastian worked steadily, several times, until he slowed down and pushed inside once more, this time with a second finger.

 

He felt himself stretch rather uncomfortably, and reflexively clenched down on the intrusion. Sebastian stroked his thigh with his free hand and murmured quietly to him that he should try to relax. Ciel released a shaky breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and felt both fingers slip all the way inside. And something happened, Sebastian’s fingers brushed against something inside him that made him suddenly seeing stars and he cried out as if in pain.

 

Grinning, Sebastian made sure to hit that spot every time he pushed inside that tight ring of muscles. Deciding that Ciel might be ready for more, Sebastian withdrew and carefully added a third finger. Ciel was moaning as Sebastian started to spread them apart when he’d pushed inside. He curled and twisted them around and some small whimpering noises that Sebastian suspected was a mix between pain and pleasure escaped the younger’s lips and Sebastian made his best effort to stretch his young man even further.

 

After a few more moments of moving his fingers in that sweet arse, Sebastian couldn’t wait any longer and he pulled them out. Grabbing hold of his own, neglected erection, he covered it with the slick substance, rubbed his hands over it to cover it completely with lube and grabbed Ciel’s legs, slowly spreading them further and a little higher.

 

A quick glance at Ciel’s face told him that it was no point in asking if he was sure, the younger was practically begging for it. At least the words that slurred from the younger sounded like that. Sebastian positioned his slick cock at the entrance to Ciel’s body and rubbed it a little up and down to make sure it wouldn’t hurt too much. He looked down into Ciel’s half-closed eyes as he started to push inside.

 

At first it seemed impossible, but then the muscles gave away and Sebastian slipped inside halfway, making the both of them gasp. Sebastian couldn’t help but to stare as his cock disappeared into that warm, tight hole. He pushed a little more, holding on tight to Ciel’s hips. He closed his eyes and breathed hard, he was there, he had made it. His groin made contact with Ciel’s buttocks as he pressed on further.

 

He was buried as deep as he could go and Ciel hadn’t uttered a single word of discomfort. Sebastian took a moment to allow the bluenette to adjust to the feeling before he slowly pulled himself out a little, and pushed back inside. He was panting and shaking with the effort of not plunging into that arse as hard as he could, he didn’t want to hurt him, not his Ciel, especially not like _this_.

 

Suddenly, he felt Ciel trying to push back himself and Sebastian started to move a little more, trying his best to hit that secret spot inside Ciel. When he heard the younger cry out again, he knew where to aim. In response, Ciel wrapped his legs around Sebastian, making the cock slip even deeper inside. When Ciel started to moan, Sebastian leaned down to catch those lips into a fierce kiss as he started to thrust himself harder into his lover, swallowing every moan coming from Ciel’s lips as he curled his arms around him, wanting him tighter, closer to himself. Ciel’s arms wrapped around him too, desperately holding on as he couldn’t wrap his mind around the sensations that were flooding his mind, burning his body and making his mouth utter sounds he’d never known he could do.

 

Sebastian was moving their bodies together in perfect harmony, meeting and pushing to the movements from his lover. Groaning, he ripped his mouth away from Ciel and bit down hard on the younger’s shoulder, making him scream. Tasting blood on his tongue, he circled the bite-mark with his lips and sucked lightly on it as he moved harsher than before, desperately seeking his release, plunging his cock mercilessly into the smaller body he was keeping an iron grip on. Ciel mewled as he felt his aching cock rub against Sebastian’s stomach, the dull throbbing pain in his shoulder only making him needier, spurring him to push back harder to Sebastian’s movements, feeling the pressure rise in his cock.

 

Sweat pearling on Sebastian’s brow escaped and trickled down his face as he kept his slamming pace, one of his hands loosening its grip on Ciel’s hip, only to delve down, between their bodies, to wrap itself around Ciel’s weeping cock, stroking it in tune to their movements. Suddenly, Ciel stiffened slightly and he gasped out a surprised “Sebast-…aah!” as his cock started to paint his stomach with his white release.

 

The young man’s muscles started clenching involuntarily around Sebastian’s still moving cock as he came, it made Sebastian grunt out something hard to make sense of and then he made one final, deep thrust and stayed there, trembling, as he filled Ciel with his come. A moment later, still panting, he slowly pulled out his limp cock and released his grip on the younger beneath him, tiredly falling down onto the mattress next to him.

 

Ciel slowly came back to his senses, feeling slightly numb and strangely content. He stretched his arms above his head lazily and turned to his side and snuggled close to the man beside him, not wanting to lose the feeling of security and bliss Sebastian had made him feel mere moments ago. As a warm arm pulled him close, he hid his face in the other man’s neck. A shiver escaped his control and Sebastian allowed a chuckle escape his lips as he wriggled them both down beneath the covers.

 

Ciel yawned as he blurted out, “That was fucking fantastic.”

 

Sebastian pulled him close again, and replied in a whisper, right into that small ear, “Yeah, I agree.” After a second’s thought, he added, “I didn’t hurt you, did I? You never said anything, so I assumed you were-”

 

Ciel silenced him with a quick kiss. “It felt amazing, no matter what you did, I wouldn’t have asked you to stop.” He stifled a yawn and looked into Sebastian’s dark, deep eyes, “I love you.”

 

Sebastian stared, and then he kissed his lover. A moment later, he whispered with his deep, velvety voice, “I love you, too, Ciel.”

 

The young man couldn’t hear him, he was already deep asleep, held tightly to the one person he truly felt affection for. Sebastian held him close and fell asleep, his nose pressed against the younger’s nape.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it? 
> 
> I haven't written anything like this before, please tell me if it was terrible... *sweats*
> 
> Reviews! I need to know if it's worth writing this.


	17. Evil in Motion

Chapter Seventeen

 

“ _Evil in motion_ ”

 

October 9th, 06:23

 

Yawning, Ciel stretched his arms above his head. He felt warm and fuzzy all over. Sighing happily, he curled closer to the snoring mess that was Sebastian. He’d done it, he’d overcome his fears and it had been the best moment in his life. Wrapping his arms around Sebastian’s free arm, he moved too quickly and realized everything wasn’t all that fine and fuzzy. His bum hurt. He supposed he should have been taking things a little more easily, considering, but he didn’t regret it, not for a single second.

 

He relaxed as the pain subsided and buried his face in the crook of Sebastian’s neck. He smelled so wonderful and Ciel was so relaxed and happy, he wasn’t even embarrassed about being naked, even if Sebastian might see a few scars, it just didn’t matter any more. Because he was finally truly happy.

 

\---

 

At the same time, in another place, Claude and Alois were doing the exact same thing. Only, they were both awake. Claude was kneeling on the bed next to his young lover, gently massaging his shoulder blades.

 

“Clauuude…”

 

“Hm?”

 

“I wanna go again…”

 

Claude stopped his caresses and seemed to hesitate a moment before he answered, “No.”

 

Alois moaned out a slow, “Whyyyyyy?”

 

Claude straightened himself up and sighed. “Because, when you have convinced Phantomhive to go to the café with you and Undertaker takes care of him, we will fuck. Every day,-” Claude climbed towards Alois on all fours, a predatory look in his eyes, “…-until you can’t walk properly.”

 

Alois turned over on the bed to be able to face the older man. The blond giggled and tried to steal a kiss. Claude grinned and decided to indulge his blond lover.

 

\---

 

When Sebastian finally woke up, he opened his eyes to the annoying beeping of Ciel’s phone alarm going off like there was a fire somewhere. Groaning, he rolled over in bed, noticed that Ciel hadn’t woken up yet and saw that he was drooling slightly on the pillow. Sebastian smiled and reached over the sleeping young man to turn off the alarm.

 

He felt his heart warm up as he lay on his side, propped up on his elbow, watching the younger snore into his sheets. He looked so peaceful in his sleep and Sebastian couldn’t help but to feel a little proud when he thought back to the previous evening. How Ciel had trusted him completely. Smiling, he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on that unruly hair. Groaning, Ciel started to stir in his sleep. Sebastian kept watching him, intertwining his fingers in the younger’s hair, caressing it softly.

 

“Mmhh?”

 

“Good morning Ciel.” Sebastian stroked his knuckles across Ciel’s warm cheek.

 

“Morning.” Ciel closed his eyes and scooted closer to Sebastian. “What time is it?” He muttered the words laced with sleep into the warm chest of his lover.

 

Sebastian sighed. “I suppose I can’t convince you to call in sick?”

 

Ciel giggled and shook his head. “You know what, Sebastian?”

 

“Hm? No, what?”

 

“Yesterday… was the best night in my entire life.”

 

Sebastian grinned at that, “Then there’s only better nights ahead, you know.” Suddenly, Ciel looked very sad. “What’s wrong, love?”

 

Ciel blinked at the affectionate phrase, and then he said, “I really don’t want to go to school today.”

 

Sebastian’s smile reappeared, “Then don’t. We could stay here,-” Sebastian wrapped his arms around the younger, kissed his hair and whispered into his ear, “-and have fun all day long, with nothing to worry about other than ourselves.”

 

Ciel stayed silent a whole minute after that, battling a quiet war with himself. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, Sebastian pointed out that he had actually been rather sick, not long ago. Considering that, and the warmth and closeness of Sebastian, the part of Ciel’s mind who voted for spending the day at a wooden desk lost its battle.

 

The bluenette untangled himself from Sebastian’s arms, sat up and reached for his phone on the night table. A quick phone call later, from what sounded to be a very ill student, complete with coughs and a runny nose, Ciel returned to the warm embrace that awaited him in Sebastian’s arms as they both laughed at the small rebellion they had just committed.

 

\---

 

“He’s _what_?! No! He can’t be sick, he’s _never_ sick!” Alois didn’t understand what was going on, everything was set up, everything was _absolutely perfect_ and now that bloody brat suddenly decides to call in sick! He was ruining everything he and Claude had planned together and he didn’t even know he did it. Furious, he punched a fist into the closest wall. The plaster cracked and the classmate who had spilled the beans looked shocked, to say the least. Alois forced out a smile to cover for his anger, before he stalked off to tell Claude about their change in plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost six months and all I give you are 800+ words.   
> I apologize.


	18. The Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lousy updating skills and many thanks to "ANekoForMe" who kicked me in the butt and made me write again. 
> 
> I know it's short, but now there's /maybe/ more to come if my inspiration doesn't fail me!

Chapter Eighteen

 

“ _The surprise_ ”

October 14th, Afternoon.

 

Undertaker was restless. He was pacing the small, dark office he occupied when he wasn’t posing as a stand-in teacher. A moaning noise, rather muffled, emerged from one of his strange cabinets on his right side. As he passed it, he kicked it and the moaning died down. Professor Abberline just couldn’t keep quiet, could he?

 

Undertaker stopped pacing, and slid a long, sharp fingernail down the side of his cheek. He knew he couldn’t keep the teacher locked up forever. For now, their plans had been crushed. He knew Claude was furious and that Alois had done his best to calm him down to no avail. Phantomhive had returned to school one day later than they had counted on. Now they would have to re-schedule and orchestrate the whole thing again. He sighed and brushed off some invisible lint from his black coat. They would try again, in a while. He was sure they would succeed this time.

 

October 29th, early morning.

 

Ciel woke up slowly, as usual cuddled close to his lover. Sebastian was wide awake and feeling rather restless where he lay. Ciel was resting his head on Sebastian’s arm, his bluish locks covering his face.

 

As Sebastian was looking down at the peaceful face, Ciel narrowed his eye and muttered, “What’s up? You look terrified.”

 

Sebastian averted his eyes and swallowed. “I…I’ve been keeping a secret from you, nothing big, it’s just-”

 

Ciel sat up slightly, “What do you mean?”

 

Sebastian bit his lip and gathered his hands in front of himself. “Really, it’s just a surprise, but I’m not really sure now if-”

 

Ciel’s face lit up with a wide smile, “A surprise?!”

 

Sebastian started feeling like all the butterflies in the world had decided it was a nice idea to move into his stomach. “Yes, but I really should save it for your birthday-”

 

“Oh, come on, you can’t mean that! Pleaaase Sebastian…” Ciel leaned over him and pressed a light kiss in the middle of Sebastian’s chest.

 

Sebastian realized he had no chance arguing against him and so he sighed, “Alright, get dressed and then I’ll show you.”   


 

Leading Ciel in front of him, with his large hands covering the younger’s face, he whispered conspiratorially into his ear, “No peeking, or I’ll keep the surprise to myself.”   
  
Ciel shook his head seriously, his sleep ruffled hair sticking out on all ends.   
  
Sebastian was wearing a goofy smile along with a rumpled shirt, just like his beloved. Only, in his own opinion, Ciel looked much better all ragged and with bed hair than he himself did.

 

His heart was picking up the pace as the closed in on the garage. Biting his lower lip, he really hoped that he had remembered correctly. With a deep breath, he pushed the button to open the garage door. Then he waited, until Ciel impatiently tried to reach his fingers with his tongue.

 

“All right, what’s the surprise? You’ve kept me waiting long enough,” Ciel jokingly complained, “It better be good, or I’ll-”   
  
Sebastian dropped his hands and Ciel fell silent.   


When the young man seemingly didn’t react at all, Sebastian grew worried and turned Ciel around to look at him. He felt a jolt of pain in his gut. His dear young man was crying. ‘ _But why? I’m sure I got it right…_ ’

 

“It’s…it’s a’68 Mustang,” Ciel choked out between sobs, “A blue fastback…” he hiccupped slightly, “….with white stripes.” He threw his arms around a shocked Sebastian’s throat. “I can’t believe you remembered that! You bloody wonderful dork…” He squeezed out a nervous giggle, “Can I ride it so school?”   
  
Sebastian lifted him up, the younger wrapping his legs tightly around Sebastian’s middle and they just held on to each other. Ciel was so happy he was afraid might burst. Sebastian carried his over to the gleaming car, decorated with a large red bow on the roof and dropped his lover in front of the passenger’s seat. “Now, I know you’re getting your Provisional License any day now, but until then, I’ll drive you. Deal?”   
  
Nodding and beaming like a lighthouse, Ciel caressed the door handle before he entered the car. The seats were the black leather pony edition with imprinted running mustangs. He sighed as he sat down, saw Sebastian looking happily at him and he couldn’t help himself, he just had to, so he did. Ciel grabbed Sebastian’s wrinkly shirt and pulled him down for a kiss. They only separated when they had to break off for air, making the younger gasp.

 

The very first ride with the purring Mustang of his dreams alongside the man of his dreams would be one of the memories Ciel would remember for the rest of his life. He had never felt more alive or more at peace as he was now.   
  
The delayed breakfast they shared was spent mostly curled up in bed, intertwined with each others sheets and feeding each other pieces of toast. Ciel ended up lying across Sebastian’s chest once more, resting his cheek on that strong chest, listening to his lover’s heartbeat. “Thank you,” he whispered. “For everything.”   
  
Sebastian didn’t say anything at first; he reached up a hand to rest it in between those unruly bluish curls. With a sigh, he wondered out loud, “I love you, Ciel. Why on earth shouldn’t I buy you a car?”

Ciel shook his head slightly, “No, I didn’t mean that, although thank you, like a gazillion times for the car.” He paused a second to kiss Sebastian’s nose and gather some courage before he spoke again, “What I meant was that you’ve saved me. You saved me from choosing between my abusive Aunt and an orphanage. You took me in and you care for me, how am I supposed to repay all that?” His voice broke at the end and he stopped talking.   
  
Sebastian nudged his lover’s chin, “Love me, that’s all you have to do.”   
  
Ciel felt an involuntary chuckle escape his lips, “You idiot, I already love you-” Sebastian grinned at him, “Then stop worrying, love. We’ll be together forever.”   
  
Ciel hid his red face beneath a white sheet and Sebastian laughed at him, yanking at the end of the sheet, only to make the younger wrap them tighter around himself…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hugs to all my readers! 
> 
> Love you all~


	19. The White Wedding Drenched in Crimson

“ _No_! You can’t die on me now!” Sebastian’s heartbreaking scream echoed throughout the night. His once white shirt was spattered with blood. His cheek had a nasty wound that was bleeding profusely, creating a small river down his neck. “I won’t let you die…!” Sobbing, his breath caught in his throat, Sebastian leaned slowly down to the ground, placing his white clad knees next to the maimed and lifeless body of his beloved on the cold, wet soil. His tears mixed with the blood, making it flow even easier, but he didn’t care, he couldn’t feel. He fell to his side, cradling the motionless young man in his arms carefully, screamed until his lungs burst with pain and everything went black.

 

Two hours earlier.   
  
Today was the big day. The day with a big D, his and Sebastian’s day. It was warm and sunny outside. A perfect day for a wedding, really. Especially an outdoor one. He let out a nervous breath in front of his full-figure mirror. The white suit Sebastian had bought him was tailored and fit like a glove. He corrected his new baby-blue silk tie and smoothed down his hair. A few tresses stuck up here and there but he knew Sebastian liked it that way. Thinking of his love, he smiled brightly and remembered the years that had passed since they literally ran into each other. They had shared so much love and laughter together. Ciel was smiling widely when he heard a knock and that familiar and soft voice, “Ciel? Are you ready? They’re waiting for us.” Ciel closed his eye, took a deep breath and took four short steps to the door and opened it. Sebastian, clad in a matching suit was grinning at him. Ciel swallowed nervously, “Let’s do this, love,” he said, grabbed Sebastian’s tie and pulled him down for a sweet kiss.

Walking down the aisle, with his hand on Sebastian’s arm, people beamed at them. Not that Ciel saw them, he only saw his own dark Prince. The ceremony was beautiful, the cake made by Sebastian himself and as a surprise, Ciel made his husband sit down in the chair at the end of the large dining table. With a frown, Sebastian watched as Ciel ran off. He returned only moments later with his treasured violin. Everyone drew in a breath. Ciel had made quite a name for himself; he was a famous violinist now. And he had written a serenade for the love of his life.

Glancing at Sebastian as he raised the instrument, he saw that mischievous little wink that meant he wanted nothing else than to grab him and make love to him right in that moment. Ciel wanted to sneak off too, but he knew he had to wait until they had left the party officially. Taking a deep breath, he put the bow to the strings. The faintest of tones carried like spidery thin legs, trembling through the air, carrying on to a deeper more melancholic part. A few minutes into his own work, Ciel dared a peek at his audience. Sebastian was sitting straight backed in his chair, but his cheeks were glistening with tears. He closed his eye again to begin to build up a faster, more fleeting sound. He ended his performance with a whirlwind of notes, played together like a master of the arts. When silence fell around them again, it felt as if time itself had stopped. Then the applauses exploded and Ciel bowed deeply three times before he stepped down from the small stage and into the open arms of Sebastian.

“Oh, God, I love you so much,” Sebastian buried his nose into the younger’s hair and breathed in, “that was absolutely beautiful. Thank you.”   
Ciel rested his head on Sebastian’s chest, a goofy grin on his face. “Anything for you, my Prince.”

Soon, their car was ready for them and everyone was gathering up at the gates of Sebastian’s mansion to see them off. Someone yelled, “Throw the bouquet now!” And Ciel did. It landed in Grell’s arms, making him crack up in a wide grin and turned to Ciel’s Aunt with a cheeky look. Laughing, they both waved everyone goodbye and stepped into Sebastian’s Dodge to leave. They didn’t mind that Grell had painted ‘Just married’ to the rear of the car, or that he had tied a gigantic bow on the hood. They were happy, and now they would be for the rest of their lives.

For about another 17 minutes, when a drunk driver would ram their car on the passenger’s side causing serious damage to them both.

Six of Ciel’s ribs crushed to smithereens, a lung collapsing in on itself, an internal bleeding in the abdomen and a sickening blow to the head caused by the impact of the side window. Sebastian hit his head on the dashboard, got slashed in his cheek from a piece of broken glass that flew through the air and his left leg got slammed into the side of the door, bruising him from ankle to hip, sending his left shoulder through the window, slicing through the new suit and drenching it in a beautiful cherry red pattern.

Coughing wetly, Sebastian regained consciousness. Smoke. Where was he? The car, but why was it so hard to move? He breathed in and groaned out in pain. His mind couldn’t focus, what the hell had happened, oh god, _Ciel_!

 

Sebastian reached for his husband and tried to speak, but his vocal cords just didn’t want to work. Ciel was bleeding from his head, his face slack and his body turned in a way that didn’t look natural. Fumbling with his seatbelt, Sebastian managed to free himself and push the door open. Grabbing Ciel gently beneath his arms, he pulled and lifted the love of his life from the wreck of the car. Something hissed and tinkled when he staggered out of the car. Frantically carrying the younger, he didn’t feel his own injuries until he had laid Ciel down in the cool grass by the side of the road, safely away from the smoking car.

 

Panting, he trembled as his fingers traced the unresponsive face of Ciel Phanto- no…Michaelis. His breath hitched and it hurt, everything hurt. He tried to find his phone, he had to call someone, anyone, they needed help, _someone help them_ , oh God, _Ciel_! His own phone was useless; it had been snapped in half by the crash. Swallowing hard to stave off the tears threatening to overtake his senses, he searched Ciel’s pockets and found his old, worn Nokia.

 

Dialling 911 he waited with his heart in his throat. He is relived when he finds that he can talk, but he can’t remember what he tells the lady who answers; he can only focus on Ciel. She tells him not to worry, that help will arrive soon, but how can he not worry when he is kneeling there, watching his lover hardly breathing, not reacting to anything he does, not that he dares do much anyway, afraid of hurting him further. He does as the lady on the phone says, he checks Ciel’s breathing, tries to staunch the bleeding from his head with his own torn suit jacket and fastens it gently with his tie.

 

Hearing himself breathing too fast, he clings to the voice on the phone who reassures him that help is on the way. _Well, where the hell are they?!_ Sebastian rises from the ground, he can’t stand to watch Ciel just lie there and being unable to help. He shoves the phone into his pocket, he needs to be alone for a second. Taking a shuddering breath, he turns to look at Ciel again. And he breaks. Tears bursts from his eyes and his mouth twists into a grimace as he tries to stop himself from crying. He takes a step closer to Ciel’s body when he hears it. A rattling wet noise coming from the bloodied mess that was once the most beautiful being Sebastian had ever laid eyes upon. He still is, of course. He loves him so much his chest aches, his heart skips a beat at the noise, hoping Ciel might regain consciousness, but as he starts walking towards him, the noise abruptly stops.

 

“ _No_! You can’t die on me now!” It feels as if someone has ripped his heart out and is crushing it right in front of him. As the rain starts to fall heavily on the both of them, Sebastian starts sobbing and screaming one after another. His tears mix with blood and rain and he falls to his knees at his beloved’s side. An animalistic howl of pure anguish cuts through the air, before he collapses next to the motionless young man, gently placed his arm around him and allowed himself to weep. He can’t help it. He screams again, to hell with it all. His lungs hurts and he feels strangely heavy around his middle. He doesn’t care. All that matters is Ciel. And so he tucks his face into those bluish locks one last time before he too is slowly pulled into the darkness.


End file.
